Angels get the best of White Sox rookie starter Noah Schultz

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It wasn’t the best of outings for White Sox left-hander Noah Schultz on Wednesday. He walked the first batter he faced, but worked out of the first inning unscathed.

The proverbial roof then caved in during a five-run second that included a three-run Travis d’Arnaud homer as Schultz took his second defeat of the season in an 8-2 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium. That closed a six-game Sox western road trip at 3-3.

Schultz allowed seven runs on seven hits with four walks and two strikeouts before Sox manager Will Venable yanked him with two out in the fourth.

“Today it was just a case where they hit some tough pitches,” Venable said. “The homer was a well-located fastball. Four walks. You have to be a lot more aggressive in the zone. It was just one of those days when he got burned on some pitches.”

The outing was the antithesis of Schultz’s last one. He opened the road trip this past Friday with oddly an 8-2 win over the Padres at Petco Park in San Diego during which he allowed no runs on two hits in six innings. The walks still plagued him in that game. He had three, two of them in the first inning but pitched out of trouble in that one.

No such luck against the Angels on Wednesday. What can he learn from it?

“There’s a lot of stuff,” he said. “I can definitely look at some video. Make sure I wasn’t giving away any pitches, that I wasn’t getting repetitive. I thought I was going hard, soft, hard, soft pretty frequently. I’ll just have to talk to our staff and make some changes for next week.”

It was definitely the worst game pitched by a starter on this trip. In the first five games the other four starters had only allowed six earned runs. Schultz blew that up.

He’s not going to be perfect all the time, it was noted.

“Yeah, for sure,” Venable said. “I really like where he’s at. He’ll continue to build on all of these starts. This obviously wasn’t the best one. But he’ll continue to go to work and he’ll be fine.”

It’s May and what’s up with Kyle Teel?

The projected starting catcher has been down with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain since March 10 after running out a double for Team Italy in a victory over Team USA during the World Baseball Classic. Though he’s been throwing and hitting and even crouching to do some catching, running has been problematic Teel admitted on Wednesday.

“Every day I’m taking a step to be back playing baseball,” Teel said. “The rehab is going good. I’m running better every single day. And it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be ready to go on my rehab assignment and be back.”

Teel has been saying this for weeks. But the reality is this: Around April 19, Teel had a setback running and his rehab assignment at that point was delayed. Originally he was only supposed to be out four to six weeks. That timetable has long since come and gone.

You can’t play if you can’t run and the Sox continue to delay his minor-league rehab assignment. Plus, Venable has been satisfied with the work of Drew Romo both behind the plate and working with the pitching staff.

“Teel is getting closer,” Venable said. “I feel really good about his progress, him getting up to speed with his running. But some of the recovery has been slower than we wanted. We’ll continue to push him to run the bases when we go home and see where we are at.”