Six pitches into Thursday’s season opener, Chase Meidroth attempted to serve notice that this will be a different season for the Chicago White Sox:
Unfortunately for the White Sox, they managed just one hit in the first seven innings of the game, and four total.
In what would end up as virtually the only highlight of the day for the White Sox, Meidroth running it to a full count in his leadoff at-bat pushed wunderkind Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski to 24 pitches in the first frame.
Now, there’s a flip side to that, as part of Misiorowski’s high pitch count was in part a result of him striking out White Sox at will: He whiffed the three hitters after Meidroth in the first, had five Ks through two innings, and seven through three — and that seventh K placed him within one of Milwaukee’s team record for Opening Day.
On the first batter of the fourth, Andrew Benintendi waved at a ball over his head and outside, giving Misiorowski a tie for the mark. After a single by Austin Hays and a second walk to Munetaka Murakami (constituting the first of two “rallies” of the game for the White Sox), Everson Pereira helped the record fall, with another strikeout. And then just to top it off, Misiorowski got his 10th — in four innings — by punching out Quero with two on to escape the frame.
Those 10 strikeouts at only age 23 helped Misiorowski match Don Drysdale and Gary Nolan as the only NL pitchers since 1901 to have 10 or more Ks on Opening Day. And with one final strikeout in the fifth inning, getting enough distance in the game to earn what at that point (6-1) appeared to be a guaranteed win, Misiorowski became the only pitcher in major league history to have 11 strikeouts and two or fewer hits on Opening Day.
By the sixth, just one Brewer had not reached base on the day: Andrew Vaughn, who wasn’t having much of a revenge game in his first meeting with the team that had drafted him. However, he took care of that business with an RBI single to push the Brew lead to 9-1.
In MLB debut news, in his first at-bat in the majors, Murakami struggled to meet Misiorowski’s velocity, but regrouped enough to work a walk on a ball an eyelash inside. On the other hand, the Brewers starter didn’t throw Mune a single strike, so his free pass shouldn’t have taken seven pitches.
Later, in the ninth and down, 14-1, Murakami got his first MLB hit, a mammoth home run to right that doubled the White Sox run total.
Jedixson Páez, straight outta Single-A, made his MLB debut with the sacks packed and two outs in the sixth inning, which seems an entirely reasonable decision by manager Will Venable. Páez walked in a run (following four walks including one walked in by Jordan Hicks, in an utterly abominable White Sox debut) to start things off, and actually managed another later in his appearance, giving him two-thirds of his entire 2025 season base on balls output in just one game.
Shane Smith tried to recover from what was at best an uneven spring, after allowing a leadoff double on his very first batter faced as an Opening Day starter but shutting things down from there. But in the second, things fell apart after two walks sandwiched around a(nother) catcher’s interference from Quero packed the sacks with one out. There, Joey Ortiz blooped a hanging slider, and the 60.1 mph jam shot, with a .280 xBA, fell into short right field to tie the score.
Smith would not survive the inning, getting the collar at 51 pitches and just four outs. As much as Quero’s CI helped fuel Milwaukee’s rally, he also was 3-for-3 on catcher challenges on Smith pitches to help save the starter’s bacon.
In the eighth inning, the White Sox loaded the bases with one out, but whiffs from Lenyn Sosa and Austin Hays snuffed the heat. In the ninth, the only highlight was Murakami’s home run, as the White Sox otherwise struck out three times, ending the game with 20. That’s the most in Brewers Opening Day history (although believe it or not, it is not a White Sox Opening Day record, as they struck out 21 times in 1996 …. over 12 innings).
But it wasn’t something in the water in Milwaukee, if the final score didn’t make that obvious. The White Sox walked just five times, while Chicago arms issued 10 free passes and struck out just three Brewers.
It’s an off-day Friday, and the White Sox get back at it on Saturday, trying to even up their season in a clear trap game for the Crew.