'Take everything from each start': Bush parsing through early lessons

CHICAGO -- With less than a handful of Major League starts under his belt, there’s something for Ky Bush to take from each time he toes the rubber, whether good or bad.

In the White Sox 13-4 loss to the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday, the rookie lefty lasted only three innings and surrendered five runs (all earned) on eight hits, including a home run, with one walk and one strikeout.

“Just not ideal, really,” Bush said. “That’s how you can sum it up. I don’t know how else to put it.”

The White Sox fell to 31-99 with the loss.

Bush -- ranked by MLB Pipeline as the White Sox No. 10 prospect -- was coming off of his strongest start in the Majors since the club promoted him from Triple-A Charlotte on Aug. 5. He allowed just one run on four hits and three walks in six innings last Sunday against the Astros.

“Hopefully he can kind of [build] off of that last one, where he was really a lot more competitive, getting ahead of guys, throwing more strikes,” White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore said pregame on Saturday.

Bush threw first-pitch strikes to nine of the 17 batters he faced on Saturday, but he also often fell into hitters’ counts, which forced him to make a pitch within the strike zone. He had four 3-1 counts, including one against leadoff man Matt Vierling in the first inning.

Vierling, a right-handed hitter, laid off a four-seam fastball up and then took one thigh-high for a strike. The Tigers right fielder then took a changeup down and a four-seamer away to get ahead 3-1. Bush came back with a four-seamer thigh-high again, and Vierling pulled it inside the third-base line for a double.

Andy Ibáñez followed Vierling, and he got ahead of Bush 2-1. Bush threw a four-seamer on the outer half of the plate, and Ibáñez lined it into left field for an RBI single.

"He got in trouble a few times,” Sizemore said. “I thought they had good swings. He wasn't getting ahead of guys. When you don't have good command and you're not getting ahead, you've got to come in there with strikes and they're ready for it. When you get behind, it makes it tough. They just put good swings on it."

Bush’s pitch mix was an interesting wrinkle to Saturday’s performance. He leaned on his curveball more than his first three starts in the Majors, throwing it 30 percent of the time against the Tigers (18 of his 60 pitches). That was his second-most thrown pitch on Saturday, behind only his four-seamer (29).

In his first three starts, Bush threw his curveball just 11.6 percent of the time, working it off his four-seamer (51.5 percent) and changeup (25.7 percent).

Having a consistent third pitch could go a long way for the lefty in his progression as a big league starter. Bush said he’s been working on the curve in recent weeks. He got two whiffs on six swings against it.

“I just felt like it was working today, so we kept going with it,” Bush said of his curveball. “I probably could have mixed in a couple of more sliders, but I just felt like the curveball had good shape, landed it well. So I just kept going with it.”

After Ibáñez’s single, Bush got out of the first inning without allowing any further damage. He worked around consecutive two-out singles by Parker Meadows and Zach McKinstry in the second, getting Ryan Kreidler to fly out to left fielder Corey Julks on a curveball.

Detroit sent eight hitters to the plate in the third and scored four runs, starting with a homer by Vierling to open the inning. Right-hander Touki Toussaint took over in the fourth.

Saturday was part of Bush’s learning process in the Majors.

“Take everything from each start,” Bush said. “Just keep building on the positives and learn from the negatives, and go on with it.”

The White Sox were competitive at the plate against Tigers starter Tarik Skubal, who’s considered among the favorites for the AL Cy Young Award this season. Skubal allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings.

The White Sox scored three times in the bottom of the third, after the Tigers’ four-run top half of the inning. But Detroit scored four runs in the fourth and four more in the ninth to pull away.

“They've been fighting,” Sizemore said of the White Sox. “They've been putting together good at-bats, playing good defense. The effort is there. … Sometimes we just get beat. Sometimes they have a better outing, whether it's pitching or offense. It's hard to win in this league.”