BALTIMORE — Jairo Iriarte admitted to being a little nervous.
The right-hander entered Tuesday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth inning, making his major-league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
Iriarte retired the first batter he faced, Emmanuel Rivera, on a flyball to right. But a walk, single and another walk followed.
Iriarte settled in and made sure the Orioles didn’t have a big inning. They scored once, on a sacrifice fly, but Iriarte then struck out Colton Cowser swinging. That capped a day he will never forget.
“It was a difficult inning, I didn’t want that to escalate,” Iriarte said through an interpreter after the 9-0 loss at Camden Yards. “I just didn’t want to give up more runs. I tried to do my best, especially when I have runners on base.
“I’ve worked a lot to have my mind strong enough, to keep my mind strong, especially in those situations. I’m getting better at that and I have the help of a mental coach too that helps me. This is a work in progress, but I feel like my mind is strong enough.”
Iriarte joined the Sox on Sunday from Double-A Birmingham, one of the team’s two September call-ups along with outfielder Zach DeLoach.
It has been a year filled with change and opportunity for Iriarte.
The Sox acquired the 22-year-old, along with pitchers Drew Thorpe and Steven Wilson and minor-league outfielder Samuel Zavala, in the March trade that sent Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres.
He went 5-7 with a 3.71 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 23 games (22 starts) for the Barons.
Iriarte found out he was headed to the majors from Birmingham manager Sergio Santos.
“That’s the news that everybody was waiting for,” Iriarte said Sunday. “I just want to do what I know I can do and hopefully get good results.”
He produced solid results recently for the Barons, going 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA over his last eight starts since July 20.
“All that work has shown up in my outings,” he said. “The work is there, and the results have been there.”
That is similar for DeLoach, who in 40 games since July 1 had a .322/.409/.507 slash line with 13 doubles, 29 RBIs and 32 runs for Triple-A Charlotte.
“More mentally than physically,” DeLoach told the Tribune on Monday. “Really just staying on the attack. I was working on a few things, trying to slug, trying to do more damage at the plate. Overall, the mindset that I’ve had over the last couple of months, it’s been really good, it’s been very consistent.
“Being up here is a true blessing and opportunity. I’m looking to continue what I’ve been doing and not change.”
This is DeLoach’s third stint with the Sox this season. He’ll largely be utilized for corner outfield depth.
The Sox plan to use Iriarte out of the bullpen, beginning with one inning per outing as he makes the adjustment.
“He’s got a good arm,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said after Tuesday’s game. “The ball looked like it was coming out good. A little bit of everything that inning. He worked out of a jam. It was a good first outing.”
Iriarte said while he has been starting the whole season, “First and foremost, I am a pitcher.”
“I can pitch in any situation,” he said. “I’m here to compete and do my best.”
Miguel Vargas rests after exiting Tuesday following collision
Third baseman Miguel Vargas is “doing good,” according to Sizemore, a day after leaving Tuesday’s game in the aftermath of a collision with left fielder Andrew Benintendi.
Vargas and Benintendi were tracking a ball down the left-field line in the second inning when the contact occurred. Vargas remained in the game for a batter before exiting with a cut on his right eye.
“He’s got a little cut on that eye, so we’ll give him today (off) and (the team is) off (Thursday), and we’ll see how he’s feeling after that,” Sizemore said before Wednesday’s game against the Orioles. “Make sure there’s no lingering issues or vision issues. He took a pretty good shot.”
Before the game, the Sox placed infielder Brooks Baldwin on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist sprain and recalled infielder Bryan Ramos from Charlotte.
“He had some swings (before the game) today where he felt it, so it’s still a little sore,” Sizemore said of Baldwin, who had been limited since Thursday.
In off-field news, general manager Chris Getz said the Sox “decided to go a different direction with a restructuring of our international department,” in regards to Marco Paddy, the special assistant to the GM, internationals operations. This year marked Paddy’s 12th with the organization.
