CLEVELAND — The White Sox will start rookie left-hander Hagen Smith against the Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday. He’ll face Guardians righty Parker Messick.
Smith opened Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Astros with three scoreless innings, putting the Sox on track for a 6-3 victory. He allowed two hits and struck out one as the Sox took a 4-0 lead.
“Excited about Hagen for the same reason that we chose him in Houston,” Sox manager Will Venable said Friday. “I think he gives us a really good shot up front here.
“As we’re looking at kind of a longer series here, we do have these off days in between. So I do feel like we can lean on some of the bullpen arms to get us through some bulk here, and Hagen is as good as any for us.”
“I want to go out there and do the best I can for the team, and realizing it’s just baseball at the end of the day,” Smith said. “Like the Houston outing, after that first pitch, I was pretty anxious to get out there and just kind of throw the pitch. After that, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s just baseball.’ “
In 18 regular-season games, Smith had a 1.29 ERA, allowing four earned runs in 28 innings. He walked 16 and struck out 41. He faced the Guardians in three games, allowing two runs in 5 2/3 innings, walking six and striking out eight.
Messick went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA in 32 starts this season. In four starts against the Sox, he was 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA. In 25 2/3 innings, he struck out 29 and walked five.
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