The Chicago White Sox did not have a lot of expectations coming into 2024. They are likely going to be one of the worst teams in the American League for the second year in a row.
But every Opening Day, there is renewed hope because of the clean slate. The White Sox sort of had that on Thursday.
They lost 1-0 to the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field and put up ghastly offensive numbers, but there's one thing that they can be extremely happy about: Garrett Crochet's impressive outing.
This was the first start of his MLB career. He became just the ninth player in league history to make his first career start on his team's Opening Day.
Garrett Crochet had enchanted stuff on Opening Day in his first start
Crochet went six innings and gave up one run on five hits. He struck out a remarkable eight batters and walked zero. His stuff was enchanted.
This guy was drafted out of Tennessee to be a starter, but injuries and team circumstances led to him starting his MLB career as a reliever.
The last opponent he went over four innings against was the Florida Gators before doing so against the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day. The fact that he was able to do it at such a high level speaks volumes about his talent.
He's successful because he mixes some very good off-speed stuff with fastballs that flirt with 100 MPH. If he keeps this up, he could go on to have a fantastic career as a starter.
Unfortunately, he was tagged with a loss because his team scored zero (0) runs. Javier Baez got one hit off of Crochet and stole a base to come around to score with no other damage. The Sox couldn't get the game tied after that.
The bullpen backed him up, too, which was nice to see. If Crochet's talents are going to be taken advantage of, he needs the relievers to step in behind him and preserve the game. Deivi Garcia, Michael Kopech, and Dominic Leon were the three pitchers who all came in and did an inning of work. The staff as a whole should be happy with this outing.
The White Sox will do a lot of losing this season, but Crochet and the pitching staff gave us a reason to be happy on Opening Day. We'll take it.