BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BRISTOL, Va. – The Bristol White Sox’s first series of the season is officially in the books. Opening day has come and gone. It’s time for a first impression.
And the early diagnosis reveals a dynamic pitching staff that is being smothered by listless hitting. The stock BriSox manager Ryan Newman puts in this evaluation? Absolutely none.
Either way, it’s the only way to describe the BriSox’s opening series against the Greeneville Astros, which culminated in a 3-2 Astros’ win on Thursday at DeVault Stadium.
Though Bristol captured the second game in the series, they managed to score only eight runs combined in their first three ballgames, while the pitching staff surrendered only eight earned runs in the same span.
Still, Newman isn’t buying the anemic-offense theory.
“I think that’s just early season,” Newman said. “A lot of these guys, their college season ended a month and a half ago. They haven’t seen live pitching. The pitching early in the season is always going to be a little bit ahead of the hitting.”
Such was the case during Thursday night’s game.
Though Bristol starting pitcher Murilo Gouvea surrendered only three earned runs in his 5.1 innings of work – striking out seven and walking none – and the BriSox bullpen extended its scoreless steak to 10.2 innings to start the season, the Astros’ staff was better.
Greeneville starting pitcher Jose Cisnero gave his club five scoreless innings of work, and after the BriSox touched reliever Jeiler Castillo for two runs in 2.1 innings, Astros closer Nathan Pettus nailed down the ninth inning for his second save of the season.
Bristol was able to string together seven hits and four walks, but left seven of those runners stranded on base. The BriSox’ first run came when catcher Shaydron Buckridge scored on a passed ball in the seventh inning. The second crossed the plate in the eighth when Daniel Black scored on Jeffer Patino’s sacrifice fly.
“It was a tough game, but everybody is just getting into the swing of it,” said BriSox left fielder Brady Shoemaker, who went 3-for-4 with a double on Thursday. “We’re still not comfortable with everything.
But we’ll turn it around. We’re just three games into the season.”
While the offense is still finding its strength, the bullpen is already at midseason form. University of Tennessee product Daniel Wiltz relieved Gouvea in the sixth inning and promptly extended the bullpen’s scoreless streak to more than eight innings, striking out three, and Chris Zagyi finished off the game.
“We’ve got a lot of pitchers, a lot of different arms, we’ve got lefties that throw hard, lefties that throw soft, righty sidearms, righty overhand,” Wiltz said. “I think we’re really good.”
Thursday’s game also saw the debut of Harold Baines, Jr., son of the former White Sox slugger of the same name. The younger Baines went 0-for-4 on four pitches.
The BriSox homestand continues tonight, when the Princeton Rays come to DeVault Stadium for the start of a three-game series.
Greeneville 010 011 000–3 10 1
Bristol 000 000 110–2 7 0
Cisnero, Castillo (6), Martinez (8), Pettus (9) and Alvarez. Gouvea, Wiltz (6), Zagyi (8) and Buckridge. W–Cisnero (1-0). L–Gouvea (0-1). S–Pettus (2). HR–Martinez (G), 5th, none on.
scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543
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