For a little more than five innings on Friday, White Sox starter Drew Thorpe was flawless. He gave up a leadoff single in the first inning to Brenton Doyle, but then for 16 straight Rockies hitters – including striking out the side in the third inning – Thorpe didn’t allow a baserunner.
There were some impressive defensive plays in that mix, like third baseman Lenyn Sosa making a diving catch over the tarp on a foul ball past the third base dugout and Paul DeJong playing a sterling shortstop all night, but Thorpe ultimately showed a couple of the things that could make him a key piece of the Sox rotation in the future.
One, Thorpe has now produced back-to-back quality starts; he finally let up a two-run homer to Doyle in the sixth inning, but Thorpe’s final stat line is the sort of performance that made him a significant element of the Dylan Cease deal in March. Against the Rockies, he surrendered just two runs across six innings while striking out four and walking only one player.
“He’s really detailed in his work, he prepares extremely well and he competes his ass off,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “That’s kind of what you want. After giving up the leadoff man’s initial hit, you retire 16 straight times. Both in managing the running game and fielding his position, he performed admirably. All of these is a necessary aspect of starting pitching.
With only four big league starts under his belt, Thorpe is shown his ability to overcome a poor start — such as the seven earned runs he gave up in three and a half innings against the Diamondbacks on June 16 — and instead build on his success in his recent string of excellent performances.
Thorpe remarked, “Every day gets more comfortable, every outing I’m more comfortable in.” It’s simple if you stack a few in a row and sort of keep building on that, so once you get there, you’re kind of rolling and just keep making pitches.”
His management and teammates are impressed with his ability to do that, tossing two excellent starts following a difficult second professional game. Thorpe has generally shown remarkable poise, especially in the manner he hasn’t shown alarmed when things aren’t going well. In addition to his impressive performance thus far, Thorpe’s level-headedness is a contributing factor to his sustained prosperity and may enable him to pitch for the Sox for many years to come.
Grifol stated, “I think it’s really valuable and impressive at this level.” “You have too many games; you can’t overreact. Far too many highs and lows. You can definitely use it to your advantage, regardless of your position in the major leagues. Overreacting is not an option; you must keep working, think things through, absorb guidance, apply yourself, and try again. And he appears to be in control of everything.
An example was provided by Friday night’s sixth inning, when Thorpe walked Sam Hilliard with one out to bring Colorado within one run of the score since the game’s opening batter. The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning thanks to a single by the same batter who opened the game with a 1-2 offspeed pitch that he later crushed over the left field wall.
“Obviously, it’s a bummer. I pitched well for five innings before hitting a changeup,” Thorpe remarked. “You just have to go back to work and get the first guy out, get strike one, because it happens.”
With Doyle’s two-run home run, things could have gone very wrong for the rookie starter who had been in control of the game for so long. To end the inning, Thorpe responded by getting two quick groundouts, one of which he also fielded. With a four-run sixth inning from the offense, Thorpe secured his second career victory.
Even though it’s very early in his career, Thorpe had only played for the San Diego Padres for a few months when he joined the White Sox. Thorpe was also a key component of the Cease trade. He was a part of the December trade that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees before he was traded to Chicago.
His locker sits adjacent to Garrett Crochet and Jonathan Cannon; probably not a planned choice by the clubhouse manager, but the importance is impossible to overlook. These three might be the White Sox starting pitchers of the future.
However, that is a broad question. For now, the Sox want Thorpe performing the types of things he did against the Rockies on Monday. Not just retiring 16 of them in a row, but also rebounding back from a go-ahead home run on a mistake delivery. Both of those things are microcosms of the attributes Thorpe has that lead to a positive future for the White Sox.
“You don’t only have to have short-term memory in between starts, you got to have short-term memory in between innings and hitters,” Grifol stated. “You give up a home run, okay, flush that thing we got to get three outs right here. One thing I appreciate about him, he showed a little bit of emotion when he came in, he was a little ticked when he gave up that home run.
“We’re starting to see who he really is and how he is, how he reacts to some of this stuff. He’s a winner and he’s got the makings of becoming a fairly decent starter here for a long time.”