White Sox Starting Pitchers Join MLB History With Strong First Series

Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon and Davis Martin combined for 17 innings and zero earned runs in the White Sox first series of the 2025 season.

Jack Ankony | Mar 31, 2025

Chicago White Sox pitcher Davis Martin (65) throws against the Los Angeles Angels at Rate Field. / David Banks-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago White Sox

CHICAGO – Though the White Sox lost two of three games in their season-opening series against the Los Angeles Angels, the starting rotation made a strong first impression.

Sean Burke tossed six scoreless innings on Opening Day. Jonathan Cannon followed with five shutout innings on Saturday, and Davis Martin was credited with zero earned runs in the series finale.

White Sox starting pitchers have not allowed an earned run across three games and 17 innings. They're the 11th group in MLB history to accomplish that feat and the first since the Toronto Blue Jays did so across four games in March of 2019, per STATS.

Starter success 🫡 pic.twitter.com/IheJKaQigl
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) March 31, 2025

White Sox manager Will Venable has been impressed with their ability to pitch through traffic.

"All these guys have done it," Venable said. "All their starts were kind of similar, right? Some early traffic they pitched around. Obviously Davis yesterday with the error that he can't help that, but did a good job minimizing damage. So yeah, we expect these guys to pitch well, but to see them in the early going kind of pitch through those moments has been nice."

Burke earned the win Thursday as the White Sox took down the Angels 8-1. He allowed just three hits and did not walk any batters while striking out three. He appreciated the support from 31,403 fans at Rate Field on Opening Day.

"It was awesome," Burke said. "I think that's the most fun I've ever had pitching in front of these fans at home. That first inning after I struck out [Tim Anderson], that was just the craziest high of emotion with the fans cheering and everything. So it was awesome. I couldn't have dreamt it up any better."

Like Burke, Cannon wiggled out of trouble in the first inning after allowing a leadoff single and a walk. He settled down in the middle innings and allowed just four hits in five innings while walking three batters and striking out five.

"I thought it was good," Cannon said of his debut. "Definitely a little bit of a battle, didn’t have the command overall but made big pitches when I had to. Thought all the pitches were moving good. Overall it was a good start to the season. ... Really executing big pitches when I had to. A lot of that was [Matt] Thaiss too behind the plate making really good pitch calls and reading the swings a little bit, keeping me focused, coming out and talking to me, settling me down when he had to. I thought we had a really good chemistry behind the plate today."

The Angels scored two runs in the first inning, but both were unearned for Martin after an error from shortstop Jake Amaya. The first run scored on a sacrifice fly, and the second came in on a fielder's choice groundout. Martin relied heavily on a changeup that's become somewhat of a go-to pitch, and he finished with six innings, four hits, zero earned runs, two walks and two strikeouts.

"I think last year when [pitching coach Ethan] Katz talked about hey we're going to throw [the changeup], we're going to throw it often, I think I'm very much buying into the results that I'm seeing,” Martin said. “I think it's just a comfort pitch that I can throw when I need to. I think the difference is being able to set it up better than last year and not just solely relying on throwing it over and over again. Just try to set it up correctly and get to that spot."

Related stories on the Chicago White Sox