Top prospect Noah Schultz stumbles but settles down in bumpy White Sox debut

Before Noah Schultz’s major-league debut Tuesday night, 45 miles from the suburban high school where his left arm put him on the map, general manager Chris Getz acknowledged there would be “some challenges and some adversity along the way” for the White Sox’ top pitching prospect.

The growing pains came a little sooner than anyone would have liked, least of all Schultz, who introduced himself to the majors with a rocky 33-pitch first inning that saw him struggling to find the strike zone — but still flashing the stuff that has propped up the hopes of a rebuilding team.

The 6-10 hurler dashed onto the mound in front of 14,648 at Rate Field, which sounded a lot more crowded thanks to the hundreds of family, friends and supporters who made the short trip to the city to see the Oswego East High School alum’s first MLB appearance.

“Being able to see and hear the support from the guys who were there is something I’ll never forget, something that I’ll forever be thankful for,” said Schultz, 22.

By the time he returned to the dugout with his first inning and strikeout under his belt, he also had his first two walks, his first surrendered hit, a costly throwing error and a 3-0 deficit. But he rebounded admirably on a night when the Sox’ bullpen struggled more than he did in an 8-5 loss to the Rays.

“There were nerves in the first inning and nerves the whole time,” Schultz said. “Got some nice words from guys in the dugout to calm down and help settle me down.”

The Sox’ most anticipated pitching debut since Michael Kopech’s in 2018 started promisingly, with a 98 mph fastball that Rays designated hitter Yandy Diaz watched whiz by for a strike. Diaz worked a 3-2 count before Schultz induced a fly out to left — caught by Tanner Murray, his old Triple-A teammate.

Schultz struggled with control from there, walking the Rays’ Jonathan Aranda on six pitches and Junior Caminero on four straight, setting up Ryan Vilade’s RBI double to the left-field corner and prompting a mound visit from Sox pitching coach Zach Bove.

When Ben Williamson dropped a sacrifice bunt, Schultz barehanded it cleanly but went for the out at home, throwing well wide of catcher Edgar Quero and letting in two runs.

Schultz finally started looking like the ace of the future after a line out from Chandler Simpson, blowing away Jonny DeLuca on three straight pitches. The momentum carried over to a three-up, three-down, 11-pitch second inning.

Schultz fanned Aranda to open the third before walking Caminero and surrendering another single. He caught Caminero darting off second for the second out, then served up an RBI double to Williamson.

After a clean fourth, he got Aranda again to open the fifth before manager Will Venable called it a night — not a pretty one for baseball’s No.  7-ranked lefty prospect but one that could have gone off the rails and might have looked far different without the two-run error.

“Understandably, the first inning there sped up on him a little bit,” Venable said. “[He] wasn’t in the zone like we saw him later in the game, but did a nice job settling down.”

The Aurora native took the loss after 4⅓ innings with four runs (three earned), three hits and four walks to go with four strikeouts, for a 6.23 ERA. He threw 82 pitches, 51 for strikes.

Schultz left with the Sox trailing 4-3, his support coming from outfielder Everson Pereira’s three-run homer. Munetaka Mura-kami did his best to get Schultz off the hook with a two-run blast in the ninth.

Before the game, Getz called Schultz’s debut “a big step” in the Sox’ rebuild.

“We view Noah as a front-line starter at the major-league level, and we feel like the time is now,” Getz said. “We know it’s not always a smooth transition to pitch in the big leagues, so we anticipate there’s going to be some challenges and some adversity along the way, and that’s OK.”