The first two Washington Nationals batters reached with a walk and a double in the third inning Saturday, giving the visitors runners on second and third with no outs.
Chicago White Sox starter Noah Schultz rebounded, striking out James Wood looking and former Sox infielder Curtis Mead swinging.
Andrés Chaparro hit a grounder back up the middle, but Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery made a diving stop and then threw to first, where Munetaka Murakami had an impressive scoop as the Oswego East graduate got out of the inning without allowing a run.
Schultz pumped his fist and yelled, “Come on,” as he made his way back to the dugout.
“Just great defense behind me,” Schultz said. “Unbelievable play from Colson, pick from Mune, that was awesome. It’s awesome to see that. It’s great because I can be so confident in the guys behind me, helping me out a ton.”
Schultz helped the Sox hang around before they ultimately suffered a 6-3 loss in 10 innings in front of 35,174 at Rate Field, the largest crowd for a non-opening-day April home game for the Sox since April 29, 2007, against the Angels (38,513).
Saturday’s large crowd witnessed a low-scoring contest for most of the afternoon.
Nasim Nuñez drove in two with a single in the fourth inning to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead. The Sox evened the score with two runs in the eighth. Everson Pereira knocked in one with a single and Chase Meidroth tied the score with a sacrifice fly.
The game went into extra innings, where the Nationals scored four in the 10th.
Washington took advantage of three walks, one intentional, and a run-scoring passed ball charged to catcher Drew Romo in the inning. Nuñez completed a four-RBI day with a two-run single. Reliever Jordan Leasure allowed three earned runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts in two-thirds of an inning.
“This one is one where on the pitching side, we just have to find ways to be more effective in the zone,” manager Will Venable said. “We understand how that hurts us. On the offensive side, we have to find ways to score.
“This isn’t one of those losses where you start over and gather up all those things we have to do differently. We know what we have to do to go out there and be effective. We just have to do a better job.”
Sox batters struck out 14 times. Sox pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, including a career-high eight from Schultz.
“Felt good,” Schultz said. “A lot of things I was working on. A lot of things, good things I did, bad things I did.”
Schultz allowed two runs on four hits with the eight strikeouts and four walks in six innings.
“I thought he did an outstanding job,” Venable said of Schultz. “You get six innings, two runs there. The runs were a result of the free passes there (back to back walks to begin the fourth). I thought he did a great job. Good start by Noah.”
Saturday marked Schultz’s third outing since being called up from Triple-A Charlotte on April 14. He has a 3.52 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings. Venable sees the left-hander getting “more and more comfortable.”
“I don’t think that confidence is ever an issue for him,” Venable said. “He’s a very confident guy. Each one of these starts we see the confidence grow in his ability to be effective in the zone. When he’s not effective in the zone, he gets back in the zone. So just continuing to develop into a really good starter for us.”
Schultz, 22, saw plenty of areas to learn from after the career-high 85-pitch outing.
“I wish I threw a couple more changeups in there today,” Schultz said. “Something obviously to work on for next week. Being able to use all five pitches the way I want, definitely. A lot of things that I wish I improved on today, but at the end of the day, things that I definitely need to work on.”
