Nastrini's hard work bears fruit in best start of career

CHICAGO -- Nick Nastrini’s first two stints with the White Sox could have been a direct hit to his confidence.

The rookie right-hander pitched great during Spring Training and would have been the team’s original fifth starter if he hadn’t been battling pneumonia at the time. He joined the Major League club on April 15 and posted an 0-5 record with an 8.39 ERA over six starts, including an outing in Toronto on May 22 in which he allowed eight earned runs over 3 1/3 innings.

But life often is about taking advantage of those second chances, or answering the door when opportunity knocks. That’s exactly what Nastrini did during his return from Triple-A Charlotte Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field during a 2-1 loss to the Rangers.

The club's No. 18 prospect per MLB Pipeline didn’t get that first career victory, falling to 0-6 overall. But he did pitch well enough to deserve that win, allowing one run on three hits and one walk with three strikeouts over six innings.

“It was more on his mechanic base of things, cleaned up some of his rhythm and his timing, and then obviously, his pitches are elite,” said White Sox catcher Korey Lee. “I've always known that they were elite ever since Spring Training when I saw him. It was a little bit more of mechanics slowing him down a little bit.”

“I knew when I was up the last time that my stuff played but I needed to refine some things,” Nastrini said. “Needed to get in the zone, needed to stop walking guys. It’s nice to see all the hard work pay off and just a testament to ‘it’s not over until it’s over.’”

Things were far from over for Nastrini even after those uneven first six starts. At 24 and having been acquired from the Dodgers with reliever Jordan Leasure at the 2023 Trade Deadline, he remains a part of the White Sox future with some work to be done in the present.

Getting the ball consistently in the strike zone, as Nastrini mentioned, was one of the targets. Over his 24 2/3 innings entering Thursday, Nastrini issued 25 free passes against 19 strikeouts.

“Just able to execute pitches when I needed to,” Nastrini said. “Got to a couple of 3-2 counts, but I was able to execute a slider a couple of times. Then, fastball command was a lot better. I had some misses, but I was able to get it in the zone for the most part.

“There were some things I identified that I needed to work on -- cleaning up my delivery a little bit. Just honing in on that and honing in on being able to execute the fastball to the bottom and the top of the zone and use it to get back into counts.”

Nastrini retired the first 10 hitters from Texas (63-71) before Corey Seager connected for his 30th home run of the season, which also was his 200th career homer. The White Sox (31-104) provided little support against Nathan Eovaldi (10-7), who allowed just a Gavin Sheets single with 10 strikeouts and two walks over seven innings.

Andrew Benintendi’s 15th home run, coming off closer Kirby Yates in the ninth, helped Chicago avoid a 15th shutout. The South Siders’ misery continues, as they have been swept in 21 series, fell to 18-51 at home and have yet to win a game this season when trailing after six innings (0-65), seven innings (0-80) and eight innings (0-88).

“Sometimes you've got to tip your cap, and sometimes you also have to look at the film and see what you could've done better,” Lee said. “There's a couple things that I could've done better obviously.

“Other guys think that maybe a little bit, but I'm not going to speak for anybody else. [Nastrini] had a great game today."

The primary story for the White Sox on Thursday was Nastrini, whose work at Charlotte and the help he gained from others guided his successful start.

“[Dominic] Leone came down. Him and I had a long talk after one of my outings in Nashville,” Nastrini said. “He was doing a rehab stint [in Triple-A], so having some of the guys come down there that knew me as I was here and also knew me as a person, that was a big help.

“[Charlotte pitching coach] R.C. [Lichtenstein] was great down there. Started talking to [Dr. Jeffrey Fishbein], our team psychologist here. That was a lot of help, too. Those few people that I named, but there have been tons of people who have helped, so props to all those people.”