Drew Hutchison has had some tough games as he had seen his ERA blow up all the way to 7.47 back on May 3. Coming into Monday's game, he started crushing that ERA back down to make it more reasonable. But coming into a home game against the White Sox, it was uncertain just how successful the right hander would be.
But he was phenomenal, being the player of the game as he did a complete game shutout against the southsiders. He started off the game by striking out Adam Eaton for the first of his 8 strikeouts in the game. What is even more impressive though is that he did that without allowing any walks. He had 96 pitches to get through 9 innings of work. The closest anyone got to home plate was 270 feet away at first base, as he only gave up 4 singles, and then forced two inning ending double plays.
But they also performed well on the other side of the plate as Hector Noesi got rocked on the mound early. Jose Reyes led off the game with a double. Josh Donaldson walked. Chris Colabello hit a single to score both runners and then Justin Smoak hit his third home run of the season to put 4 runs on the board in the opening inning. The Blue Jays simply didn't dominate the game from start to finish at the plate, but they got the job done with getting the runs scored early.
In the bottom of the second, Donaldson hit a home run of his own, a deep one to centerfield measuring in at 452 feet, and it was his 10th home run of the year. Scott Carroll would be responsible for the other run of the game in the bottom of the eighth, as Josh Donaldson would score for the third time when Justin Smoak hit a single for his third RBI of the game.
The Chicago White Sox (19-23) will put John Danks (2-4, 5.11 ERA) on the mound at 7:07 PM ET for game 2 of the series on Tuesday, May 26, as he will face RA Dickey (2-5 , 5.49 ERA) and the Toronto Blue Jays (21-26) as these two teams are looking to turn their season around.