For a little more than five innings on Friday, White Sox starter Drew Thorpe was perfect. He gave up a leadoff single in the first inning to Brenton Doyle, but then for 16 straight Rockies batters – 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 thrown back-to-back quality starts; he eventually gave up a two-run homer to Doyle in the sixth inning, but Thorpe’s final stat line represents the kind of pitching that made him a key piece of the Dylan Cease trade in March. Against the Rockies, he allowed just two runs across six innings while striking out four and walking only one batter.
“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. You give up that first hit to the leadoff guy and then you retire 16 in a row. He did a good job of controlling the running game, he did a good job of fielding his position. That’s all part of being a starting pitcher.”
Thorpe has just four major league starts under his belt, but in his consecutive quality starts, he is showing the ability to flush a bad start – like giving up seven earned runs in 3 ⅓ innings against the Diamondbacks on June 16 – and build off of his success instead.
“Each day gets more comfortable, each outing I’m more comfortable,” Thorpe said. “Once you get there, then you’re kind of rolling and continue to just keep making pitches and it’s easy once you stack a couple in a row and kind of continue to keep building on that.”
His ability to do that, to toss a pair of quality starts after struggling in his second career outing, is impressing his teammates and his manager. Overall, Thorpe’s composure has been a standout quality, particularly in the way he hasn’t seemed rattled when things are going poorly. And along with his quality numbers so far, Thorpe’s even-keeled nature is a part of his continued success and could help keep him on the mound for the Sox for years.
“I think it’s extremely impressive and valuable at this level,” Grifol said. “You can’t overreact, there’s too many games. Too many ups and downs. It’s definitely an asset to you in whatever position you’re at here in the major leagues. You just can’t overreact, you gotta continue to work, reflect, take in instruction, apply, and go do it again. And he seems to have all that in check.”
The sixth inning Friday night offered an example: After retiring 16 straight batters, Thorpe issued a one-out walk to Sam Hilliard for the first Colorado baserunner since the first batter of the game. The same batter who led things off with a single in the first inning then knocked Thorpe’s 1-2 offspeed pitch over the left field wall to give the Rockies the lead in the sixth.
“It sucks, obviously, I had a good five innings and then hung a changeup,” Thorpe said. “It happens, and you just gotta get back to work and get the first guy out, get strike one.”
After being in control of the game for so long, things could have spiraled for the rookie starter when Doyle hit the two-run homer. Thorpe responded by getting two quick groundouts, including one he fielded himself, to end the inning. The offense responded with a four-run bottom of the sixth to give Thorpe his second win of his career.
It’s incredibly early in Thorpe’s career, but he came to the White Sox not only as an integral part of the Cease trade, but Thorpe had only been with the San Diego Padres for a few months. Before they traded him to Chicago, he’d been a part of the December deal that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees.
His locker is next to Garrett Crochet and Jonathan Cannon; perhaps not a deliberate choice by the clubhouse manager, but the significance is hard to ignore. Those three could represent the future of White Sox starting pitching.
But that’s a big picture question. For now, the Sox want Thorpe doing the kinds of things he did against the Rockies on Monday. Not just retiring 16 of them in a row, but also bouncing back from a go-ahead home run on a mistake pitch. Both of those things are microcosms of the qualities Thorpe has that point to a good 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 said. “You give up a home run, okay, flush that thing we got to get three outs right here. One thing I like about him, he showed a little bit of emotion when he came in, he was a little pissed off 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 being a pretty good starter here for a long time.”
