Brewers 14, White Sox 2: Early ecstasy, prolonged agony
MILWAUKEE — No word on if managing editor Jim Margalus saw a monkey’s paw curl when his plea for the White Sox to get off to better starts was published Thursday morning. In either case, the Sox didn’t fulfill the request at the appropriate scale for enjoyment.
As thrilling as it was for Chase Meidroth to open the season by obliterating a 99.5 mph full count Jacob Misiorowski heater, a 417-foot bolt for the longest batted ball of his career (life?), the early Sox lead was wiped away within the hour, and a Brewers rout was on by the fourth inning of a 14-2 humiliation ritual. Misiorowski struck out 11–one short of his career-high–with only one other hit allowed over five innings, while fellow 2025 All-Star Shane Smith didn’t make it out of the second.
Munetaka Murakami whacked a center-cut Jake Woodford cutter into the right field seats for a solo shot in the ninth. But between his and Meidroth’s outbursts, things got very grisly.
“Not good, at all,” said Will Venable. “The game plan is put the ball in play offensively and to limit free passes on the pitching side. We had 20 strikeouts on offense and 10 walks, so, yeah, not good.”
Chris Getz made a lot of reference to Smith’s past season’s work when asked about his opening day starter choice on Wednesday–“based on last year, we felt he was the right guy to take the ball,”–which only took upon an ominous tone if you were reflecting upon the right-hander’s shaky spring fastball command. Those location woes followed Smith into the season, even through a scoreless first when he induced a couple of grounders and a popup to strand a Bryce Turang leadoff double.
That proved to be less of a speed bump and more the tip of the iceberg, as a pair of uncompetitive walks to Sal Frelick and Garrett Mitchell took away any margin for error. Speaking of errors, that’s what Edgar Quero’s catcher’s interference on a David Hamilton foul ball counts as in the scorebook, which proved to be the straw that broke open a four-run inning. A drawn-in infield alignment allowed No. 9 hitter Joey Ortiz’s blooped jam shot to fall beyond Meidroth’s reach for a game-tying single, and Smith was a pitch away from delivering a tie game to the third when William Contreras lashed a high 2-2 changeup past Miguel Vargas for a bases-clearing double.
“I thought I got him to fist it in his first at-bat and probably can’t go back to that a second time,” Smith said. “Wasn’t trying to throw an up-and-in changeup. I think the day could look different with a couple different pitches, but obviously frustrated with the outcome. I think everybody in this clubhouse is.”
Venable indicated that starters will be more cautiously managed to start the season, and 36 pitches to get two outs in the second proved to be Thursday’s cutoff point, giving Smith a new shortest outing of his young career.
Smith is a well-liked and respected figure in the White Sox clubhouse, so it’s nice that no reliever entered the game and made his struggles look out of place. Sean Newcomb briefly stabilized things until the fourth, where Hamilton led off that frame with a routine grounder that kicked off the second base bag away from Colson Montgomery, and had too much speed to be felled by Meidroth’s outstanding corralling of the carom. From there, Ortiz and Yelich both provided RBI singles on non-strikes to put a two-spot on the scoreboard, which the Brewers matched in more traditional fashion in the fifth, with Sal Frelick launching a two-run missile off Tyler Gilbert.
While Jordan Hicks didn’t yield the same amount of hard contact, he nevertheless continued the trend of gruesome relief appearances by walking four while recording just two outs, with his last free pass pushing home a run. Hicks was erratic enough to necessitate Jedixson Paez’s major league debut to come via entering a bases loaded jam with two outs in the sixth, where he walked Mitchell on a full count to plate another tally.
Paez got big league experience, but more in the vein of Hawk Harrelson’s definition of the term. He added two more walks to the cartoonish 3-10 K-BB ratio that Sox pitching produced, and grooved a 1-2 heater that Jake Bauers lifted for a three-run homer in the seventh.
Welcome to the big leagues, kid. Yes, it actually is usually like this.
*Bullet points:
*Murakami went 1-for-2 with a homer and two walks in his major league debut. It wasn’t his fault. He traded a signed bat to the Brewers fan who caught his home run in exchange for the ball.
“I was really patient in the walks and I was seeing the ball very well,” Murakami said via interpreter. “It was really exciting experience. I was kind of surprised. I was fairly collected in the box and in the game as well. So, but it was a great atmosphere and I was relieved to be here.”
*Sox hitters combined for four hits while striking out 20 times, which is going to mean a lot of ugly batting lines. But Montgomery, Vargas, and Andrew Benintendi (with pinch hitter Lenyn Sosa sprinkled in) combined to go 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts in the 2-3-4 slots, and Everson Pereira’s 0-for-3 with three strikeouts had a particularly feeble look to it.
*Three of Meidroth’s six major league homers have been leadoff homers, and he’s now the owner of the only opening day leadoff home run in White Sox history.
*Edgar Quero wears No. 26 now. It’s just a day since Korey Lee was designated for assignment, but Quero explained it’s a number he’s worn through the minors and has special significance for him. The second-year catcher went 3-for-4 on challenges behind the plate, which isn’t what people usually think of in terms of the White Sox using tech to improve players’ shortcomings, but whatever works.
*Jordan Leasure worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning, which qualifies him as some brand of wizard.
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