Sure, it’s only the Orioles. But before today, it was Cardinals and the Twins. Add it up, and Lucas Giolito’s personal three-game winning streak sealed a four-game sweep of Baltimore, which has now lost 13 in a row.
Giolito improved his numbers in just about every directions with a season-high 12 strikeouts over seven innings of one-run ball, and the White Sox needed every out of his effort, because they didn’t take the lead until he had thrown his final pitch. A big two-strike triple by Nick Madrigal finally put the Sox ahead in the bottom of the seventh, with a Yoán Moncada single adding insurance the Sox didn’t need.
As a result, the White Sox responded to a three-game sweep in the Bronx last weekend by winning six of seven, and extending their lead in the AL Central by anywhere from 3½ to 4½ games depending on the outcome of the back half of the Cleveland-Toronto doubleheader.
Giolito had his good velocity and his good changeup, and he didn’t really need anything else. Those two pitches accounted for 90 of his 108 on the day, and 26 of his 28 swinging strikes. The fastball sat at 94, and reached 97 at the end, while the changeup worked high and low.
He only paid for one mistake, which was an 0-2 fastball that DJ Stewart met at the top of the zone for a solo shot that barely cleared the right-field wall. He also encountered only one jam, which started with a perfect Cedric Mullins bunt with one out. Mullins stole second, and Giolito walked Freddy Galvis to fill in first base. He didn’t seem to want to pitch to Trey Mancini, especially after a very wild ball two that allowed both runners to advance, loading the bases with one out.
Giolito rediscovered his release point in time. He struck out Anthony Santander with three changeups, then tripled up on Maikel Franco after a first-pitch slider out of the zone. Franco made contact with the last one, but only enough to pop out weakly to Zack Collins to end the threat. Giolito then pitched a relatively smooth seventh to close out his afternoon.
A Baltimore group effort led by Keegan Akin was just as effective through six, as he limited the damage to Billy Hamilton’s second homer in as many games. The Sox mounted a couple other threats, but Yermín Mercedes couldn’t capitalize on either one. He flied out to right with two on the third, and then saw Galvin made a slick pick on a hot shot for the second time on the afternoon to deny him two RBIs in the fifth.
The White Sox finally found a pitcher they could damage when Dillon Tate started the seventh. Tim Anderson greeted him with a single, stole second, then took third when Tate threw wildly into center field after he’d stepped off in time to temporarily thwart Anderson’s attempt for a Lance Johnson jump to third.
After all the drama, Anderson coasted home when Madrigal bopped an elevated sinker into the right-field corner. It bounced over the side wall, caromed around the netting and back into play. By the time the ball returned to the infield, Madrigal was sliding into third with an RBI triple. The extra 90 feet required Baltimore to play infield-in, and Moncada scorched a single through the middle to make it 3-1.
Garrett Crochet and Liam Hendriks retired all three batters they faced, even if they didn’t strike out an O.
Bullet points:
*Mercedes went 0-for-4 with six stranded during his hard-luck afternoon.
*The Orioles went 0-for-24 with runners in scoring position over the four games.
*The game clocked in at 2 hours, 41 minutes, the third-fastest nine-inning game of the season.
*Jimmy Lambert will be starting one of the doubleheader games in Cleveland Monday. Michael Kopech, who was last seen limping off the field four days ago, is on the bereavement list for a minimum of three days and a maximum of seven.
Record: 32-20 | Box score | Statcast
Surprising Lambert is getting a start. He has not pitched all that well so far, but has a ton of strikeouts. All else equal I’d rather see someone other than Lopez get a chance. Hope Jimmy is up for the challenge.
The good news is McKenzie is going in game one for the Tribe. Hopefully, we rake and offset Lambert
Lopez hasn’t been better than Lambert and is out of options.
I am glad Lambert gets the start. When it comes to watching Lopez, I’d rather watch reruns of Alf.
So you don’t like ALF?
After yesterday referring to Billy, Don’t Be a Hero from 1974 in the recap title, Jim decides to be only slightly more current by referring to Stand Tall by Burton Cummings from 1976 in today’s recap title.
I am well aware that Jim is a man too young to remember the AM top 40 wars between WLS and Super CFL making his choice of early/mid-70s top 40 as his cultural touchstone really surprising to me.
If Jim goes any later than 1976, I won’t know the top 40 song references because in 1977 my slightly older cousin who lived with us got married and moved out and AM top 40 stopped playing continuously in our house (I haven’t lived in that house for 40 years but I bet remnants of the tape that held up her Bobby Sherman posters is still on the walls). My brother and I wandered the radio dial, found WXRT, and the Clash, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and others started us on a path with no more AM top 40.
I only know Burton Cummings’ work in the Guess Who, but Giolito didn’t come undun, so I couldn’t tip my hand.
Jim’s response has me Laughing.
(I’m) Laughing
Once my dad got a car with fm radio in 1977, he preferred the Loop. So that’s what played as we drove around, but yes!
I had a similar experience. WLS dominated at our local pool. Then new wave and FM radio hit at the same time as my adolescence.
Liam Hendricks has now pitched in 3 games in 2 days…..I know we wanted to our big money closer to close out games but this is a bit much.
He threw 13 pitches in one inning today and 31 total in two innings yesterday. Do you really think that’s overworking him? Considering he’s their best reliever and how much they’re paying him, I like that they are using him to help win close games.
I mean, generally relievers throw around 15 pitches an outing so if that’s the benchmark there should be no reason not to use your best relievers every day without rest days in between.
Throwing 15 pitches a game in one 3 game stretch and throwing 15 pitches every day is… very different. Throwing ~45 pitches in three games over two days is obviously the exception rather than the rule, but as an occasional exception, it’s really not something to be concerned about.
But also 3 games where he came in clean to start the 9th and had a multiple run lead so none were particularly stressful appearances.
A doubleheader tomorrow as well. What if both games are close, would he try and set the record of 5 saves in 3 days, LOL! I’m sure that hasn’t been done. Hope TLR has the sense to give him the day off no matter what. The last thing we need is Liam on the DL.
Meanwhile, the Yankees got swept in Detroit in no small part due to their brutal defense. Baseball is funny.
They are also not hitting at all. I said early this year, the Yankees don’t seem to be equipped enough to battle the AL East.
I hope you’re right.
Is it fair to say Giolito doesn’t like pitching to Grandal?
Its fair to say Yaz just caught 14 innings the day before and Monday is a DH do Collins was catching this game jo matter who was pitching.
All true but not entirely germane to my question. I, admittedly, have not gone back to check the box scores of all of his starts this season. But last year he had what seemed to be a strong preference for McCann (or perhaps, just maybe, a strong aversion to Grandal) catching him. But I’ll certainly put you down for a “no” vote.
I have to agree. They’ve switched to Collins catching Rodon and Gio and Yasmani handling Lynn, Keuchel, Cease and Kopech.
I don’t think its an aversion but rather mentality related to game calling. You saw last season where McCann called 6 changeups in a row for Gio and how much Gio raved about that sequence. Here we have Collins calling three changeups for a K, then slider and three changeups for the popup to escape the jam.
I don’t think Yasmani likes being cute with the calls like that and prefers more traditional sequences.
As much as Collins has been decent behind the plate and a pleasant surprise in that regard (aside from throwing out 3 of 20 base stealers), his hitting has been basically awful. I can’t help but wonder if they will be searching for other options. Collins does not look like he has a bright future to me, unfortunately. I had hoped his 2019 numbers at AAA would lead to him being able to contribute a lot more offensively than he has, which has been close to zero.
Is the universe trolling us? Or just national sports sites.
https://www.mlb.com/video/quick-pitch-recap-5-30-21
Check out the sub-header:
José Ramírez brings in the go-ahead run for Cleveland, Billy Hamilton homers for the Cubs; Quick Pitch has all the action from May 30
I suppose we should be grateful they noticed…
Oh boy… MLB too?