Thorpe's gem has Sox thinking of ‘something special on the other side'

KANSAS CITY -- While the best pitcher on the Kauffman Stadium mound Sunday was Seth Lugo, who twirled a complete game to send the White Sox to a 4-1 loss to the Royals, Drew Thorpe offered a glimpse into Chicago’s future.

In the present, the White Sox suffered their seventh straight loss, fell to 47 games under .500 at 27-74 and were swept for the 14th time (the 13th time in a series of three or more games and seventh on the road.)

But moving forward, Chicago can also look at a rookie in Thorpe making his seventh career start against his seventh different team and throwing scoreless baseball over six innings.

The club’s No. 3 prospect and MLB Pipeline's No. 37 overall prospect struck out five, walked two and yielded three hits while reducing his ERA to 3.03 over 38 2/3 innings.

It was Thorpe’s fifth straight start of working at least six innings, while allowing two runs or less and three hits or less. In Thorpe's last five starts, he has a line of 30 1/3 innings pitched, 13 hits, 5 earned runs, 10 walks, 20 strikeouts, and three home runs.

“I feel good,” Thorpe said. “I kind of settled in. Just doing what I can do in these games to give us a chance to win."

“We didn’t get to him at all. He was excellent,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro of Thorpe. “Those guys were saying they have not seen a changeup like that in the past. Used his fastball when he needed to. But the cutter and changeup, we didn't seem to have an answer.”

Kansas City (55-45), which is now 9-1 against Chicago this season, put the first two runners on in the first after Adam Frazier was hit by a pitch and Bobby Witt Jr. singled, marking one of nine hits on the weekend from Witt, but Thorpe escaped via Salvador Perez’s inning-ending double play.

Singles from Witt and Vinnie Pasquantino put runners at first and third with one out in the sixth, but Thorpe struck out Perez and Hunter Renfroe flew out to center to get out of the jam.

According to Statcast, Thorpe recorded 18 swings and misses among his 97 pitches, with nine coming on his top-flight changeup and seven off his equally effective slider. Thorpe averaged 91.3 mph with his four-seam fastball and topped out at 93.5 mph, according to Statcast. So while the right-hander is not overpowering, he can pitch.

“He learned his changeup plays three times in a row to certain guys,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, commending Thorpe for greater fastball command since Arizona put seven earned runs on him on June 16. “Normally, that doesn’t happen because you don’t throw the same pitch three times in a row.

“People make adjustments. He learned today he can with the changeup if he continues to mix the speeds of the changeup. There are some really good learning moments.”

Mix in Thorpe with fellow rookie Jonathan Cannon, who was hit in the first inning of Saturday’s loss but settled down to make it six innings, and a young base already exists within the White Sox rotation behind ace Garrett Crochet. Jairo Iriarte, the No. 9 White Sox prospect, per MLB Pipeline, threw five no-hit innings for Double-A Birmingham during a seven-inning no-hitter in Game 1 of a Saturday doubleheader, while Noah Schultz, the No. 2 White Sox prospect and No. 18 overall, threw four no-hit innings in the nightcap.

Encouraging? Certainly. Does it take the place of victories? It sure doesn’t. This weekend’s showing dropped the White Sox to 1-16-1 in their last 18 series, and Grifol’s record as a manager dipped to 88-175.

Grifol maintains the ability to see the end game down the development path, and his strong faith helps him navigate the mounting losses.

“I’m a competitor at the end of the day and want to win baseball games. That’s the most important thing at the Major League level,” Grifol said. “But there is a process to this thing we’re going through right now. It hurts, it’s painful … I can’t lie.

“There’s a reason I’m going through this. There’s a reason we’re going through this as an organization. A reason these young kids are here with this opportunity to perform and develop. But this is painful, I can’t neglect that fact, but … I’m grounded with my faith and there is something special on the other side.”