After working through difficulties during his season debut on Thursday, Milwaukee right-hander Tobias Myers will seek more consistency Wednesday night when the Brewers visit the Chicago White Sox.
For Myers, the pursuit begins with locating key pitches.
“The back-door cutter, just being able to get the four-seam to the top the zone, in-zone is going to be something we focus on these next couple of weeks and make sure we get that dialed in,” Myers said.
Myers (0-0, 4.50 ERA) returned to the rotation Thursday in San Francisco after beginning the season on the injured list. He sustained an oblique injury in spring training.
Myers’ bid to build on a solid rookie season — he was 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA in 2024 — started with a snag. He needed 82 pitches to complete four innings against the Giants, allowing two runs and four hits in his team’s 6-5 loss. Myers walked four and struck out two.
He is 0-1 with a 10.38 ERA in one start against Chicago. Facing the visiting White Sox last May 31, he allowed five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Strong starting pitching helped Milwaukee defeat Chicago 7-2 in Tuesday’s series opener.
After surrendering back-to-back home runs to Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. in the first inning, right-hander Freddy Peralta regrouped to deliver six innings of two-run ball as the Brewers spun a combined four-hitter.
Rookie right-hander Shane Smith (1-1, 2.30 ERA) will get the call Wednesday for the White Sox in his first career interleague start.
Smith delivered five shutout innings to earn his first major league victory on Thursday at Minnesota, scattering four hits while recording a career-best seven strikeouts as Chicago won 3-0.
White Sox manager Will Venable lauded Smith for being in “attack mode,” allowing him to shut batters down after getting ahead in the count.
“I think I can be aggressive as I want to be, whether it’s soft stuff in the zone, hard in the zone, I think I can command it well enough that I’m not going to get hurt a lot of the time,” Smith said. “I just have a lot of confidence in what I’m doing.”
Chicago has lost six of its past eight games. The White Sox have won just seven games overall, fewest in the American League. Only the Colorado Rockies have fewer victories with four.
Venable, in his first year as manager, continues to work to keep players confident and upbeat as they aim to overcome early-season injuries while developing a young roster.
“Losing is always tough. Winning always feels good. But whether you are winning or losing, it’s just going to be a challenge,” Venable said. “That is what we hold on to every day, knowing regardless of the result, today is going to be a tough day. There are going to be challenges we have to overcome. There are problems we have to solve, and hopefully we get a win at the end of the day.
“Regardless of what happens, that same set of problems and challenges will be here tomorrow. That’s what we are focused on, is the things we can do to answer those questions better and to solve those problems at a better rate.”
–Field Level Media
