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Buffalo Sabres achieve first playoff victory in 15 years, defeating the Bruins 4-3!
Noah Schultz led the White Sox to a 7-4 victory over the Athletics in his second career start, allowing only one run in five innings. The win secured a series victory for the Sox.
Noah Schultz spearheaded a 7-4 win in his second career start | Scott Marshall-Imagn Images
In such a short period of time, dare I say that Noah Schultz has really, truly, already arrived?
It almost seems too good to be true, for somebody whoâs gotten plenty used to even the best White Sox prospect requiring some adjustment time in the majors. But the young condor-like lefty is is looking like an exception, perhaps just a little bit in the mold of another tall, lanky lefty whose presence undoubtedly changed the current of Sox history.
As far as todayâs action goes, Schultz fired five innings of one-run baseball in his second career start, punching out six while walking just one along the way. Even more excitingly, he did it in a way that makes you think thereâs a lot more in the tank moving forward.
The vibes were good from the outset in this one, beginning with a manufactured run in the first â courtesy of Chase Meidroth and Edgar Quero â and expanding farther with a towering Derek Hill fly ball to start what wound up being a bevy of White Sox home runs:
On another part of the lineup, I wonât mince words. Miguel Vargas spent the entire series against Tampa Bay getting completely hosed on some excellent batted balls. His BABIP entering today was a a paltry .161, which is stupid given the fact that he runs around league average in terms of swing speed and hitting the ball hard. His BABIP actually decreased today, but thatâs because his one hit wasnât a ball in play, as he demolished a baseball out to left field in the second inning to spot the Sox a four-run early lead for the second straight day:
Noah Schultz pitched five innings, allowing only one run and striking out six batters.
The final score was 7-4 in favor of the White Sox.
Schultz's strong performance suggests he could be a significant asset for the White Sox moving forward.
The White Sox secured a series win over the Athletics with their 7-4 victory.

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I spoke in the game thread about how Schultz was either going to need to get better at spotting his breaking balls to righties or heâll have to figure out how to effectively use his changeup. While he did manage to break out the cambio quite a bit more, his breaking ball command remains a work in progress, as evidenced by the wildness of the breakers on his pitch chart this afternoon:
The spinners werenât quite rolling for Schultz today, but a lot of the other stuff was. That changeup I was just talking about? It drew six swings, all against right-handed hitters, three of which resulted in whiffs. Overall, an excellent 30% of swings against Schultz came up with air over his five innings of work, heavily contributing to allowing just one run and one hit on the board. He also walked one, but more than compensated with six punchouts in total.
That one run, though? Schultz learned the consequences of being unable to spot a breaking ball in Sacramentoâs half of the second inning. After being ahead in the count, 1-2, Schultz wasnât able to locate either his fastball or sweeper near enough to the zone to put Darnell Hernaiz away, and when forced to throw one over the plate on a 3-2 count, the young righty made him pay:
It became somewhat clear that Schultzâs high velocity last week was at least partly a function of debut-at-home adrenaline. He still reached back to touch 97-98 mph a few times today, but after one time through the order he settled more at 94-95 mph. With his huge frame and unconventional release point, that was still enough to remain effective through all five of his innings.
At least the Sox offense actually gave him enough of a cushion to work comfortably late into the outing. Just as on Friday, Munetaka Murakami provided the death blow for the Athletics with yet another mammoth homer on a Springs breaking ball that hung like a half-dry chunk of beef jerky:
That makes eight homers on the year for Murakami, bringing him into a three-way tie with Jordan Walker and Aaron Judge for second in the majors. With that homer, he also became the Sox leader in home runs over their first 22 games with the team, actually surpassing JosĂ© Abreuâs magical start to the 2014 season.
Hey, remember when Abreu came up and hit a walk-off grand slam within a few weeks of joining the team? Even the bad times produce some good times in this game.
Anyhow, Murakami wasnât the only of Springsâ worries. Immediately after surrendering Murakamiâs blast, Colson Montgomery decided to make his day even worse by knocking one into the batterâs eye in dead center field for his fourth dinger of the young season.
After much consternation yesterday, we did see Grant Taylor toe the rubber again, though in a much less useful situation than if he had been available yesterday â which he understandably wasnât after heavy work on Thursday. Taylor worked around a tapper of a single to put together a scoreless seventh inning before getting touched up just a bit for two runs, just his second set of runs allowed this year. Still, the stuff looked as excellent as ever, and he still has yet to allow a home run in the major leagues. Heâs not quite Mason Miller â nobody is â but he does have a chance to go neck-in-neck with Caleb Bonemer as the franchiseâs best second round pick since Terry Forster back in 1970.
The rest of the game was easygoing for a Sox bullpen that desperately needed an easygoing game. Taylor gave way to Jordan Leasure in the seventh inning, and Leasure managed to keep the ball in the yard to bring the game to the eighth at 7-3. Bryan Hudson got into a little bit of trouble in his own bridge inning, bringing the 7-4 game just close enough that, with an off-day tomorrow, Will Venable felt comfortable giving Seranthony DomĂnguez his seventh save opportunity, and ultimately, his fourth successful conversion of the year so far.
The squad gets the day off tomorrow as they move south for a three-game bout with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have looked pretty dang good across a 14-8 start in a bitterly competitive NL West. Weâll see you for that one on Tuesday night, at 6:40 p.m. Central time!