There were a lot of reasons not to expect Dane Dunning to have a good major league debut. Dunning hadn’t pitched in a competitive game in more than two years. He hadn’t pitched above Double-A in his career. He could easily have jitters considering it was, after all, his MLB debut.
With all those factors working against Dunning, the 25-year-old looked every bit the part of a pitcher capable of sticking in a major league rotation. He struck out seven and walked one in 4 1/3 innings against the Detroit Tigers. He gave up three earned runs, all in his last inning of work. Dunning allowed five hits, including a three-run home run to the last batter he faced.
His duel against Casey Mize, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft, lived up to the pregame excitement. Mize, who also made his MLB debut, posted an eerily similar line (4 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 7 K, 0 BB, 7 H). Both pitchers finished with 73 pitches as well.
Dunning, a first-round pick in 2016, showed nasty breaking stuff. Five of his seven strikeouts came on swinging strikes from his slider or curveball.
His fastball was typically 92-94 mph. He also threw a change for a four-pitch mix.
Dunning struck out the side in the third and appeared to be hitting his stride.
Dunning’s stuff started to falter in the fourth. He looked like he was beginning to tire around the 50-pitch mark. He was still able to come up with a big strike out to end the inning with two runners on.
However, the Tigers got to Dunning in the fifth. After a leadoff single, Dunning caught a laser of a liner for the first out. That was the second liner he caught on the night.
Dunning went the first three innings without a three-ball count, but walked the next batter on four pitches. Given how his fourth inning looked, the leadoff single, the hard contact on the lineout and the fourth-pitch walk, there were plenty signs that maybe it was time to take Dunning out. However, he hadn’t given up a run yet.
Dunning was left to figure it out himself and the result was an 0-1 breaking ball in the strike zone that Jaimer Candelario blasted out of the park. Dunning left after 73 pitches.
For all the excuses that could have led to a poor performance from Dunning, those factors did seem to affect his ability to go deep into a game. If the White Sox intend to keep Dunning up, and every indication is that will be the case, he should be able to keep his best stuff deeper into games. At that point it’s a matter of reps after being away from pitching for so long due to Tommy John surgery and not having a traditional rehab stint in the minors.
At the least, Dunning showed he can be an upgrade over the bullpen filling a spot in the rotation. The bullpen has been very good, but that would be taxing even in a short season.
Dunning left with a 3-1 deficit, but the White Sox came back to tie it in the bottom half of the inning and won the game. Mize showed a nasty split finger and kept hitters off balance for most of his start, but also faded in the fifth inning. Maybe both managers left the debutants in too long, but they still managed to make some history.
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