ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Noah Schultz needed that one.
After two stinkers coming out of the All-Star break put his rotation spot in jeopardy, the rookie left-hander delivered five innings of one-run ball after Jordan Hicks opened with a perfect first. But that one run was enough in the White Sox’ 1-0 loss to the Rays on Saturday.
“He was really good with the righties with the sinker glove-side and then used the cutter off of that,” manager Will Venable said. “So good job kind of dominating the inside part of the zone. He threw a ton of strikes.”
It was a promising development for Schultz, who allowed eight runs and 13 hits in seven innings over his previous two starts. Against the Rays, he retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before running into trouble that he almost escaped in the fifth.
Jonny DeLuca led off with a single, stole second and reached third on a groundout to the right side. With two outs, Nick Fortes dropped a single into short left-center. Still, it was one of Schultz’s best showings of the year.
“I don’t know about ranking. I just know that it was a good day,” said Schultz, who threw 67 pitches, 47 for strikes. “I was pretty efficient, something that we were really trying to hammer in the last month or so. It shows that being efficient and getting ahead of guys makes a difference.”
The Sox’ best scoring chance also came in the fifth. Braden Montgomery singled and reached third on a single by Edgar Quero, who advanced to second on a throwing error. But Sam Antonacci lined out to right, the ball coming 105.1 mph off his bat.
Rays starter Drew Rasmussen stymied the Sox, striking out 10 in six innings. He allowed four hits and a walk.
“Just really good four-seam fastball with the lefties,” Venable said Rasmussen. “It was kind of cutting in on the lefties, and then we had some chase above the zone. And then really good job with the righties, too, with the fastball away. Just really good stuff.”
Roch heads to Winston-Salem
Shortstop Roch Cholowsky, whom the Sox chose with the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft last month, will begin his professional career at High-A Winston-Salem on Tuesday.
“It’s the best place for him to get going,” Sox director of player development Paul Janish said. “If I’m being honest about Roch’s ability, he could go to pretty much any level. But I think it’s important to remember the trajectory, too. We’re just introducing him to the pro level. This is going to be the first time he has the opportunity to play six games in one week.
“If he was to go to Winston, play really well or struggle, we’re not going to put a ton of weight in it. That’s just the best place for him to get going.”
Infielder Landon Thome, the Sox’ pick at No. 36, will play at the Sox’ facility in Arizona with the rest of the players out of high school.
Sox near bottom in ABS success
The Sox ranked 28th in the majors in overall ABS challenge success rate in rankings released through Friday. Their hitters had a 46.8% rate, ranking 18th in the majors, but their catchers ranked 29th at 45.5%. On Saturday, though, Quero went 3-for-3 behind the plate.
“Working on the skill of challenging or selecting the pitch to challenge is tough,” Venable said. “There are things that we talk about as far as situations that you want to challenge, as well. Success rate is not necessarily the metric we internally are looking at for how we want to approach this.
“It’s really about, No. 1, you need to use these. The worst thing to do is not challenge a pitch that can really swing things. So for us, it’s being aggressive in the right spots, and then just doing everything we can to work on the skill of being accurate.”