‘He’s a competitor’: Noah Schultz settles in and takes another step with scoreless outing for Chicago White Sox

Schultz earned his second big-league win Friday, improving to 2-1. He has a 2.53 ERA, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits with 20 strikeouts and 12 walks over 21 1/3 innings. He matched a career high for innings pitched Friday, locking in on the strike zone after the first inning.

“It’s interesting watching him pitch where you feel like he’s not really pitching his best and he’s still really tough to deal with for the opposition,” Venable said. “That’s how good Noah is. He’s still figuring it out and can be effective even when he doesn’t have his best command.”

Schultz, 22, provided a boost Friday after working out of the early bases-loaded jam.

“That was definitely a spot where it could have got out of hand,” shortstop Colson Montgomery said, “but he was mature about it and stayed within himself and competed.”

When Schultz returned to the mound in the second, he had a six-run lead. Three of the runs for the Sox in the top half of the inning came on Murakami’s major-league-leading 13th home run.

Schultz delivered a crucial shutdown inning in the second, retiring the side in order.

“After I had the rough first inning, those guys scoring all those runs picked me up and helped me settle in and be more efficient,” Schultz said. “Definitely helpful and helped me win the game.”

He gave up his first hit of the game in the third, a one-out single to Fernando Tatis Jr. But Schultz got the next batter, Miguel Andujar, to ground into an inning-ending double play. Schultz was fired up as he made his way back to the dugout.

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“He’s a competitor,” Venable said. “He wants to go out there and perform well. He is performing well and understands these pitches that he’s making, these outs that he’s getting are big outs. He’s a guy that likes to compete.”

Both of the Oswego East graduate’s strikeouts came in the fifth, when he fanned Freddy Fermin and Bryce Johnson to end the inning.

The big pitches continued in the sixth. Schultz surrendered a triple to Tatis with one out. The Sox had a seven-run cushion, but Schultz didn’t give in. He got Andujar to pop out to second baseman Chase Meidroth and Manny Machado to fly out to right to wrap up the scoreless performance.

The combination of Schultz and an explosive offense — featuring home runs from Murakami and Montgomery — led to a fourth straight Sox win.

After the game, Schultz said the focus for each start remains on being “more efficient.”

“I’ve had a couple of rough first innings, that’s something that cleaning that up, maybe I can get the seventh inning,” Schultz said. “End of the day, we are winning games and it’s awesome. That’s what matters.”