Kendall Graveman impresses in his Chicago White Sox Debut

The Chicago White Sox lost their first game of the season against the Detroit Tigers Friday afternoon in a disappointing fashion. Pitching may have been the biggest factor in the loss as some of the staff failed to close the game out. It goes to show just how important relievers and closers are in baseball.

The White Sox spent the offseason looking for some help in the pitching department and ended up bringing in Kendall Graveman. Graveman, last with the Houston Astros, signed a three-year deal with the White Sox and will be a mainstay on their pitching staff.

Graveman saw his first action with the White Sox in Friday’s game a little early coming in to relieve Kyle Crick. He pitched 1.2 innings in the game while giving up one run and striking out a batter. He appeared to have a little issue with the device in this hat but after that settled in and went about pitching.

Graveman was given a bad shake coming in with two on and one out. With the first batter, he allowed a hit that scored a run to make it 3-1. Graveman got out of the inning thanks to a double play that was turned because of a controversial slide.

He came back into the game in the bottom of the 7th and allowed a grounder that was easily picked up by Leury Garcia and the runner was thrown out at first.

The next batter, Akil Baddoo, flew out to the shortstop and gave Graveman another easy out.  With two outs, Graveman struck out Spencer Torkelson and ended the inning for the White Sox.

Kendall Graveman had an outstanding debut with the Chicago White Sox.

In limited action, Graveman did pretty well showing that he has some really good stuff. Granted, he gave up a run but that runner was already in a position to score before Graveman got into the game so it was charged to Bummer.

Overall, if you take out that score, Graveman did a decent job locking down the Tigers and keeping them in check. Look for big things to come from Graveman this season. He is going to become one of the most reliable relievers on the team.

He has the ability to get them out of some tough spots. He’s a great asset to this organization. If you want someone to root for on the White Sox when it comes to pitching, Graveman may be the guy.