After allowing a home run on the second pitch of his MLB career, White Sox rookie David Sandlin retired 18 consecutive batters and delivered one of the most efficient debuts in modern baseball history.
Nothing says "welcome to The Show" quite like giving up a home run on the second pitch of your MLB career. That's what happened to Chicago White Sox right-handed pitcher David Sandlin on Wednesday night while making his debut against the Minnesota Twins.
Yet, for any rookie looking to stay in the big leagues, it's all about how you bounce back from those moments. And it doesn't get much better than what Sandlin did the rest of the way.
After Byron Buxton's leadoff home run, Sandlin sent the Twins down in order. He retired 18 consecutive batters, going six innings while allowing just one hit and one run without issuing a walk and striking out four. He also picked up his first MLB win as the White Sox pounded Minnesota by a final score of 15-2.
Over his six innings of work, Sandlin threw just 61 pitches. That's 10.2 pitches per inning, the fewest by any pitcher in his MLB debut since 1988, when pitch counts were first officially tracked.
The 18 straight retired batters were also the most by a White Sox pitcher in a debut over at least the last 100 years.
For Sandlin, it's a statement that he belongs in the big leagues and can help this White Sox starting rotation. And Chicago could use it now more than ever.
Rookie Noah Schultz just landed on the injured list, and veteran starter Erick Fedde has been completely uncompetitive in the month of May with a 10.13 ERA over his last four starts.
The production from Anthony Kay has been hard to argue with. He's lowered his season ERA to 3.96. But Kay still has an expected ERA of 5.72 and some concerning underlying metrics that make his strong month feel unsustainable. Time will tell in that regard, but between Schultz's injury, Fedde's regression, and some inconsistencies from Sean Burke, the White Sox desperately need their starting rotation to improve if they have any chance of competing over the long haul.
This week against Minnesota, they got a great start from Burke and now appear to have added a legitimate force to their rotation in Sandlin. And what a move it was by Chris Getz and Chicago's front office to acquire Sandlin in the offseason.
The White Sox swung a trade with the Boston Red Sox, taking on the salary of reliever Jordan Hicks in order to upgrade their pitching prospect return from Gage Ziehl to Sandlin. Ziehl is currently in Double-A in the Red Sox organization with a 5.94 ERA, while Sandlin is retiring 18 straight batters in Major League Baseball.
For what it's worth, Ziehl was the return the White Sox originally got for Austin Slater at last year's trade deadline. So in less than a calendar year, Chicago flipped Slater into an exciting young arm in the MLB rotation.
Everything we saw from Sandlin on Wednesday night suggests there are more quality starts coming. In 2026, his fastball has averaged 97.5 mph, and the off-speed stuff regularly induces weak contact. As long as he's staying in the strike zone the way he did on Wednesday, he should be able to compete against any lineup in the big leagues.
