PEORIA, Ariz. — Jonathan Cannon shook off some rust Friday against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
The Chicago White Sox right-hander surrendered two runs in the first inning but had a scoreless second inning that included a strikeout.
“Offspeed stuff wasn’t as sharp in the first inning,” Cannon said after his outing in Tempe, Ariz. “Thought I kind of solved it in the second inning, stuff was good. I would take that into the next one.”
Sox starters are continuing to build up for the regular season. General manager Chris Getz likes what he has seen from the group.
“It’s been really good across the board for guys that we have penciled in for the rotation,” Getz said Friday morning. “And you put on top of that (minor-league pitching prospects) Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz making their debut here in spring training. That was really fun, especially those two guys going back to back (pitching scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday).
“Now whether it be (Sean) Burke, (Martín) Pérez, (Davis) Martin (or) Cannon, they have been really consistent, that’s what you want out of rotation candidates.”
Shane Smith, who had two 1-2-3 innings as the starter in Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners at Peoria Stadium, is one of the pitchers the Sox are stretching out this spring. That list has included Bryse Wilson, Jairo Iriarte, Tyler Gilbert, Nick Nastrini and Jared Shuster.
As the Sox work to configure the rotation, here’s a progress report from some of the pitchers after their first starts of the spring.
Sean Burke
The right-hander went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in four outings (three starts) after being called up from Triple-A Charlotte in September.
Burke, 25, took a lot away from the experience.
“Just seeing that the stuff I was doing was working well,” he told the Tribune last week. “There’s going to be changes, you’ve got to adjust when the hitters adjust. But know that that works, so going into this year, it’s trying to replicate that as much as I can and making the small tweaks when I need to.”
Burke allowed one unearned run with two strikeouts and one walk in two innings Wednesday against the Padres at Camelback Ranch.
“Everything felt really smooth,” Burke said after the start. “That’s probably the best I’ve felt physically so far this spring. Just taking stuff from my live (batting-practice sessions), kind of working on a few mechanical adjustments. Being a little bit smoother down the line. I felt like (Wednesday) everything was pretty easy for me in terms of generating velocity and shapes of all my pitches.”
Martín Pérez
Cannon, 24, described the rotation as “Martín and then kind of all the young guys.”
The 33-year-old is embracing that tag as he enters his 14th big-league season.
“A lot of years,” Pérez said Thursday. “But I feel great. We are getting where we are going to be.”
Pérez allowed one hit and struck out two in two scoreless innings Thursday against the Cleveland Guardians at Camelback Ranch.
“It’s time to practice and fix a couple of things,” Pérez said. “It’s time to throw the pitches you might be working on, but (Thursday) my mentality was to go out and compete.
“You know your body, your arm and as soon as you do something wrong on the mound, you fix it. Right away. Every time when I get the ball in my hands and I do something wrong, my body tell me ‘You are not doing what you are supposed to do.’ It comes with the experience and with the years and I’m glad to have them.”
Davis Martin
Martin focused on mixing his pitches Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields. The right-hander allowed one hit and struck out two in two scoreless innings.
“I don’t have an elite fastball compared to some guys in the league, so I want to sink it, cut it, throw changeups, throw sliders, keep guys off balance,” Martin said after the outing. “Those are my strengths, so I want to work on my strengths from the get-go.
“That’s what we had conversations about pregame. It was, ‘We’re going to attack these hitters with your strengths and let the results be what they may.’ ”
Martin, 28, is Sunday’s scheduled starter against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch.
Jonathan Cannon
Cannon felt he left too many pitches up in the zone during the first inning against the Angels.
“Sweeper to (Jorge) Soler, left it up in the zone (for an RBI double), got away with a changeup to (Mike) Trout that he popped up, but it wasn’t a very good pitch,” Cannon said. “And then the one to (Travis) d’Arnaud was just a middle, middle sinker (for a double).”
He adjusted in the second inning.
“Those were lessons I learned last year (during his rookie season), just got to live down in the zone,” Cannon said. “That was the emphasis in the second inning and then had some good results.
“Got a couple more outings here this spring to get dialed in, so I look forward to it.”
Injury news
Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor was scratched from Saturday’s lineup because of right elbow inflammation.
“(We’ll) just continue to evaluate and hope he progresses,” manager Will Venable said.
The Sox signed Taylor to a one-year, $1.95 million contract on Feb. 11. He is 1-for-8 with a walk and six strikeouts in three Cactus League games. The outfield has taken some hits recently. Left fielder Andrew Benintendi is out four to six weeks with a nondisplaced fracture in his right hand suffered Thursday.
