Lambert makes strong first impression for Dash

After clinching a first-half title in the South Atlantic League for Kannapolis on Sunday, Jimmy Lambert found out he would be one of seven players promoted to Class A Advanced Winston-Salem following the three-day All-Star break. 
It turned out to be a memorable debut on Saturday night. 
The White Sox right-hander threw six hitless innings in his Carolina League bow as the Dash claimed a 4-2 win over Buies Creek at BB&T Ballpark. Lambert collected three punchouts while throwing 51 of 86 pitches for strikes and overcame a career-high five walks.

"There's always going to be nerves, but just a couple batters got away from me in the first inning and a couple in the sixth inning," the 22-year-old said. "Other than that, I felt pretty locked in."
Gameday box score
Lambert was promoted after going 7-2 with a 2.19 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 74 innings with the Intimidators while holding South Atlantic League hitters to a .274 average. In his last four starts before moving up, he allowed two runs on 28 hits while striking out 18 over 24 frames.
Lambert was accompanied to Winston-Salem by Seby Zavala, his batterymate for all 12 starts with Kannapolis. The 23-year-old also made his Carolina League debut Saturday.  
"He knows me better than anyone and to have him, that was huge," Lambert said. "He's caught me every start this year. A lot of innings, a lot of pitches. He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. We work together very well. He knows what we can do and the stuff that I have that day."
Zavala was the first of the callups to impress his new club, bashing a grand slam to left-center on the first pitch he saw from Franklin Perez, the Astros' No. 6 prospect, in the first. 
"That was great to see. He's been doing it all year for us down in Kannapolis," Lambert said. "Anytime you can make the jump with a bunch of other guys, it helps just to kind of talk through it."

Lambert worked around a pair of walks in the first and was perfect through the next two frames. The Fresno State product recorded his first two strikeouts to start the fourth, getting Jake Rogers to go down swinging before catching Houston's 14th-ranked prospect, Yordan Alvarez, looking.
"We were just trying to get the fastball going, just like any other time," Lambert said. "We really used predominantly fastballs in the game. I was just keeping it down in the zone and getting early contact and try and get ground balls."
Myles Straw walked on five pitches to start the sixth before Lambert got Ryne Birk to ground into a double play. 
"The second time through, it was a lot of sliders and a couple curveballs and the third time we got the changeup going," the 2015 fifth-round pick said. "Obviously, the defense was doing their job and then kind of later in the game, we were mixing a little bit the second and third time through the order and we were able to get it done."
With two outs, Lambert walked Rogers to set up a showdown with the red-hot Alvarez, who had gone deep in five of his prevoius seven games. The Arcadia, California, native got Alvarez to fly out on the first pitch to complete his hitless outing.

Winston-Salem manager Willie Harris turned to reliever Mike Morrison, also making his debut with the team.
"[Harris] just gave me the handshake and obviously he knew what was going on," Lambert said. "Everyone knew what was going on. He was doing what was best for me and the team, obviously."

Morrison got two outs, the second one thanks to some nifty glove work by second baseman Toby Thomas, before surrendering a single to Taylor Jones. The right-hander pitched 1 1/3 innings, surrendering a run on two hits with three strikeouts.
Jack Charleston gave up an unearned run in the ninth en route to his fifth save. 
Alvarez had an RBI single, while Perez (3-2) gave up four runs on five hits with three walks and tied a season high with seven strikeouts in five innings for Buies Creek.