Gavin Williams On Wednesday night, he made his long-awaited season debut. Cleveland Guardians The team continues to look for additional pitching additions, including the hard-hitting pitcher who has not pitched this season after suffering an elbow injury during spring training.
Williams’ first major league start of the season was Chicago White Sox Williams gave up five runs in four innings of work. Williams allowed seven hits and struck out eight in the outing.
But advanced statistics paint a different picture of his start.
Williams threw fastballs 59 percent of the time, and they were clearly his best pitches tonight. Velocity is always a concern for Williams, coming off an elbow injury, but it didn’t seem to be an issue in this outing. His fastball averaged 96.8 mph and peaked at 98.9 mph in the first inning.
Williams struck out just two batters, but still struck out seven times and was the White Sox’s first starter. Eric Feddefinished the match with a quality start.
Three of Williams’ strikeouts came on curveballs, but he only threw that pitch 10 times. Williams works best when he throws a fastball and complements it with off-speed, and it was great to see that foundation in this start.
Before the match, Stephen Vogt Vogt declined to say whether Williams would abide by strict pitch limits. “He’s pretty much in full production,” Vogt said. “We’re hopeful he’ll be able to stay in games for a long time.”
Williams threw 74 pitches over four innings, which is still a high volume for someone returning from injury.
On the surface, this outing may have looked like a disaster, and allowing that many runs certainly isn’t ideal, but it’s important to remember that Williams was facing major league hitters who were in mid-season form at the start of his first season.
Williams should be fine with one or two more starts. He’s good enough and just needs to get more comfortable, so don’t overreact to this one start.
