MILWAUKEE \u2014 No Chicago White Sox player had led off the season with a home run \u2014 until Thursday.<\/p>\n
Second baseman Chase Meidroth worked a full count against Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski before launching a home run to left field. Meidroth pumped his fist as he made his way to first base.<\/p>\n
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The good times didn\u2019t last long for the Sox.<\/p>\n
The Brewers knocked out starter Shane Smith<\/a> during a four-run second inning and hammered the Sox 14-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 43,001 at American Family Field. Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami homered leading off the ninth for the Sox, his first major-league hit, in a game the Brewers otherwise dominated.<\/p>\n \u201cNot good, at all,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable summed up the afternoon. \u201cWe had 20 strikeouts on offense and (allowed) 10 walks, so, yeah, not good.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits with two strikeouts and two walks in 1 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cFastball command, it\u2019s something that he\u2019s been battling a little bit,\u201d Venable said. \u201cIt was OK there, got away with some stuff there early and just caught up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n The troubles began with one out in the second when Smith walked Sal Frelick. David Hamilton reached on catcher\u2019s interference and Garrett Mitchell walked. That loaded the bases for Joey Ortiz, who blooped a single to shallow right \u2014 just out of the reach of a diving Meidroth \u2014 to bring in the tying run.<\/p>\n \u201c(An) 0-2 (count) to Frelick to a walk, it\u2019s tough to succeed when you\u2019re doing that, to a catcher\u2019s interference to another walk,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to stop the bleeding somehow. Made a decent pitch to Ortiz and got the ball in the air. Just one of those baseball plays where you\u2019re playing in and (the) guy hits it in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith struck out Brice Turang, but William Contreras followed with a double past diving third baseman Miguel Vargas. Three runs scored to give the Brewers the lead for good.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n That was it for Smith, who was replaced by Sean Newcomb. Smith threw 54 pitches, 36 of them during the second.<\/p>\n \u201cNot letting today define us as a team or define me as a person or as a player more so,\u201d Smith said of his takeaway from Thursday\u2019s start. \u201cI think I made good pitches, I think I made bad pitches. The untimely walks have been a problem for me even last year and obviously not something I want to continue doing.<\/p>\n \u201cBut getting the strikeout of Turang in that inning was huge. Some better-located pitches to Contreras and hopefully the day looks a lot different.\u201d<\/p>\n The Brewers added two runs in the fourth against Newcomb, two in the fifth \u2014 on a homer by Frelick \u2014 against Tyler Gilbert and three in the sixth that were charged to Jordan Hicks.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Milwaukee scored three more in the seventh \u2014 via a home run by Jake Bauers \u2014 against Jedixson Paez, who pitched 1 1\/3 innings in his major-league debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n Command was an issue for Sox pitchers, who issued 10 walks (one intentional).<\/p>\n The Sox didn\u2019t get much going offensively after Meidroth\u2019s home run, striking out 20 times \u2014 the most in a nine-inning opening-day game in MLB history since at least 1901. Misiorowski allowed one run on two hits with 11 strikeouts and three walks in five innings.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, Misiorowski is a nightmare to face,\u201d Venable said. \u201cThat guy\u2019s stuff is up there with the best in the league. We knew that was going to be a tough assignment. And they bring (in reliever Aaron) Ashby \u2014 every arm that they brought in was really good stuff.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cTough assignments there. We know that coming in. We\u2019ve got to make an adjustment and put the ball in play. But at the same time, we\u2019ve got to give those guys on the other side some credit.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sox had four hits: Meidroth\u2019s homer, a fourth-inning single by Austin Hays, an infield hit by Luisangel Acu\u00f1a<\/a> in the eighth and Murakami\u2019s homer leading off the ninth against Jake Woodford. Murakami went 1-for-2 with two walks in his major-league debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy I was able to take the first step as a major-league baseball player, but at the end of the day we lost the game,\u201d Murakami said through an interpreter. \u201cThis is what I\u2019m mostly disappointed about. I\u2019ll try to prepare for the next game and try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only one game. But it was a rough one for the Sox.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI think the day could look different with a couple different pitches, but obviously frustrated with the outcome,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think everybody in this clubhouse is. It\u2019s Day 1, there\u2019s 161 left. Just keep at it.\u201d<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 No Chicago White Sox player had led off the season with a home run \u2014 until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[124,5,3800,1001,138,49,2561,17761,463,11714,4364,18680,1513,204,4154,59,4,73,312,751,3399,286,2117,396,2562,998,3801],"class_list":["post-645649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-austin-hays","tag-baseball","tag-brice-turang","tag-chase-meidroth","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-david-hamilton","tag-garrett-mitchell","tag-jacob-misiorowski","tag-jake-bauers","tag-jake-woodford","tag-joey-ortiz","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-sal-frelick","tag-sean-newcomb","tag-shane-smith","tag-sox","tag-tyler-gilbert","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox","tag-will-venable","tag-william-contreras"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116298535660893926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}