Cannon holds his own against likely future Hall of Famer Scherzer

ARLINGTON – White Sox rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon wasn’t even in high school when Max Scherzer won his first Cy Young in 2013. But the two squared off on Thursday afternoon at Globe Life Field, and the 24-year-old Cannon held his own against the three-time Cy Young winner.

Cannon and the White Sox ultimately lost the battle, falling 2-1 to the Rangers and seeing the team’s losing streak climb to 11 games, but Cannon’s effort is one of the few positives of late for the White Sox.

“Obviously, it’s cool to go up against a guy like that, but you can’t really think about it too much while you’re doing it [or you can] kind of get caught up in it and lose focus on what you’re doing,” Cannon said. “But, looking back on it, it’s really cool to pitch against a guy like that who’s been doing it for a long time.”

Cannon has been watching Scherzer for years, but their styles couldn’t be more different.

Cannon escaped or minimized damage almost every inning, getting timely groundouts and flyouts as he allowed two runs and scattered eight hits over six innings. He finished with one strikeout on the day.

Scherzer, meanwhile, became baseball’s active leader in strikeouts, finishing with nine. The White Sox had just three hits against Scherzer, including an RBI double by catcher Korey Lee in the third.

As the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to bake a cake and Cannon and Scherzer proved that when it comes to pitching. For Cannon, it’s another step forward by going toe-to-toe against a pitcher who many believe is Cooperstown-bound.

“He’s learning what he can do in this league,” Lee said of Cannon. “He’s learning how to mix some stuff up -- when to throw balls, when to throw strikes. That’s the name of the game -- controlling the strike zone whenever you need to, and getting out of the strike zone whenever we’re ahead.”

Cannon, who opened the season as Chicago’s No. 11 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has turned in four consecutive six-inning starts and is growing each time. In his previous start at Kansas City on Saturday, he gave up four total runs over the first two innings, but bounced back and retired 12 of the last 13 batters to make it through six innings.

On Thursday, he closed strong, too. After Rangers All-Star Corey Seager reached on a hit by pitch to start the fifth, Cannon retired Josh Smith on a flyout, and Wyatt Langford lined into a double play back to Cannon, who doubled off Seager at first.

Cannon capped his day with a perfect sixth inning.

“I thought all in all it was pretty good,” Cannon said. “Just continue making adjustments week to week. I think I could’ve gotten ahead a lot better. [I] gave up some hits, but was able to work around it, so overall, I thought it was a good effort.”

Unfortunately for Cannon, the offense didn’t provide much support. Scherzer and three Rangers relievers shut down the White Sox much of the day as they scored two or fewer runs for the sixth time in the last seven games.

The White Sox are now 8-22 in one-run games and dropped to 51 games below .500 for the first time since 1948. But starting pitching is far to blame for the losses piling up.

Chicago’s starters have posted a 3.36 ERA over the last 42 games, including Cannon’s quality start in the series finale.

“I thought that Cannon did a spectacular job,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “[Our starters] have given us a chance to win every night. At the end of the day, we just have to find ways to score some runs. It sounds like I say it every night, but that’s the reality of it, because our starting pitching has been nothing short of spectacular.

“As bad as our record is, they give us a chance to win every single day.”