White Sox 4, Twins 0: Revenge for Lucas Giolito
Followed-from-work bullet-point recap:
*The last time Lucas Giolito faced the Twins, he gave up four homers over five innings. This time? He gave up three hits over nine as he went the distance for his second shutout.
*Giolito only broke a sweat because he missed so many bats. He allowed a double, a single and a bunt single, and only faced two Twins with a runner in scoring position all afternoon. They came in the eighth after Jonathan Schoop’s one-out double, and Giolito struck both out for two of his 12 K’s on the day. He got 24 swinging strikes, including 15 on a high fastball the Twins struggled to resist.
*Nelson Cruz stung a line drive 117 mph to center, but Adam Engel stayed with it and hauled it down. Giolito ended up striking out Cruz to end the game.
*The White Sox offense couldn’t find the kill shot against the Twins, but they were able to dink enough runs across to make it comfortable. Jose Abreu had three hits, including an RBI single hooked through the left side and a shallow fly ball single into no-man’s land in right for another run. He also doubled and scored via #WILDPITCHOFFENSE.
*Matt Skole accounted for the other RBI with a broken-bat flare over second in the first inning.
*Leury García, Tim Anderson and Abreu combined to go 7-for-15 from the top three spots. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-22, including a silver sombrero for James McCann and a golden one for Ryan Goins.
Record: 57-69 | Box score | Highlights
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congrats to lucas AWESOME GAME 12K’S!!!! the last series win in MINN was in 2017 so hope they can ride the momentum against texas. hope yoan is bringing robert with him but i know wishful thinking lol GO SOX!!!
I think one of the goals this offseason is to extend Giolito. I would think you can get him on the same deal Nola signed. That was $45M/4 with a $16M team option for a fifth year.
*Side note: as bad as I think the FO is, this is the one area where they have shown competency and in some ways have been ahead of the curve, as they were signing guys to team friendly deals long before it was in vogue. They do need to prove at some point that they will give guys real 9-figure type extensions as well (think Sale, Arenado, Strasbourg, Trout, Altuve, etc.)
Not sure they were ahead of the curve. John Hart was doing it about 20 years earlier.
Nice thought but he comes from a very wealthy and intellectually savvy family. I think Hahn has met his match – no extension. If we think about this from the injury angle, I’m sure LG has purchased insurance in case of something catastrophic happening.
Reminded of this Tweet
https://mobile.twitter.com/pastfangraphs/status/1034527521943875584
I think an extension for Giolito is premature. One season is not a trend. If he has similar success next year, he’ll consider an extension if paid market rates; if he stinks again you’d regret the extension. Best to be flexible, especially with a pitcher than has had TJ surgery before.
Fun game. Gio was awesome.
Now that I’ve gotten some positivity out of the way… why the hell is Matt Skole still our DH?
Mercedes is only 26. Still too young to bring up. Stop trying to rush him, man.
There is just so much young talent in this organization right now- Giolito, Kopech, Cease, Lopez, Moncada, Robert, Eloy, Madrigal, Vaughn. This team could be awesome in a few years. But as Greg said above, now that I’ve gotten some positivity out of the way…Hahn is still the GM. Will he supplement this with 3 or 4 proven major leaguers? I have no confidence that he will. And why are Skole, Jay, Castillo still here, when Collins, Mercedes and Robert would be much, much better.
Abroo channeling his inner Vlad Guerrero with some of those hits lol
Im sure its been mentioned before, but his swinging strike % jumped 6.5% from 2018 to 2019. I understand the explanations for why, just want to note thats a crazy f’ing increase and good on Gio for hanging in there after last year. It will also be interesting to see how opposing batters adjust next year.
From worst ERA in baseball to leading the league in shutouts. That’s wild.
Goins…just awful.
As always. This shouldn’t surprised no one.