Barons' Fulmer shines in first Double-A win

In three seasons at Vanderbilt University and less than one in the Minor Leagues, Carson Fulmer had never experienced the kind of adversity he faced in his first three starts this year.

The right-hander allowed 12 runs and walked 10 batters in 12 2/3 innings, dropping all three decisions for Double-A Birmingham.

On Saturday, he put it all behind him.

The White Sox top prospect allowed four hits while striking out six and walking none over a career-high six innings as the Barons cruised to a 6-0 win over Chattanooga at AT&T Field.

"I was able to throw all my pitches in the zone," Fulmer said. "I feel like that's one thing that I've struggled with throughout my first couple outings this season, but this start and last start I've been able to throw quality pitches when I needed to and was able to have command of everything in my arsenal.

"There's a lot of positives to take from tonight and I've got to take those and write them down and get ready for the next start."

MLB.com's No. 36 overall prospect retired the first eight Lookouts before giving up a single to Engelb Vielma in the third inning.

"I got some quick outs early on [with] some off-speed pitches that I've been really working on with our pitching coach [J.R. Perdew]," Fulmer said. "My main focus was just attacking hitters. As a pitcher you have to attack the strike zone, and I feel like I did a really good job of that tonight."

The 22-year-old cruised until the fifth, when a single by Joe Maloney and a throwing error on Leonardo Reginatto's bunt allowed Vielma to sacrifice the pair to second and third with one out. Fulmer didn't panic.

"A lot of guys try to make a perfect pitch in those situations, but if you make a quality pitch or a pitch that's just in the zone, hitters will get themselves out," he said.

A well-executed two-seam fastball got Shannon Wilkerson to ground out to third, and Levi Michael lined out to right to scuttle Chattanooga's best chance against Fulmer.

The 2015 first-round pick reduced his ERA from 8.53 to 5.79. Coincidentally, Fulmer said those first three difficult starts played a big part in his turnaround.

"In college and in pro ball, I haven't had a lot of failure," he said. "I feel like, with the first three starts that I've had, it's good for me. I took a lot of good things away from that. It's going to happen as a pitcher, you're going to have good starts, you're going to have bad starts, but being able to experience that and learn from that and be able to carry on regardless of the results, that's what the growing process is."

And what did he learn?

"Regardless of the results, you have to keep things simple," Fulmer said. "You have to continue to stay on the routine that's gotten you here in the first place. I'll continue to do that and not think too much of this outing or any other outing that I've had. In five days, I'll take the hill again, and hopefully we can put another 'W' up."

Brian Clark worked around two hits over 1 2/3 innings and Peter Tago got the last four outs for his first save of the season.

Fourth-ranked White Sox prospect Adam Engel tripled and scored for Birmingham.

Lookouts starter D.J. Baxendale matched Fulmer, allowing four hits and striking out six over six scoreless frames, Alex Wimmers (0-1) surrendered two runs on four hits and fanned two in the seventh.