While Reynaldo Lopez ended his first full season in the big leagues with a decent outing that capped off a fine finish, Lucas Giolito is going to have to start over.
Admittedly, I missed Giolito's start because Colson Whitehead was in town and that seemed like a better use of half of the evening. By the time I tuned in, The White Sox trailed 10-0, although Kevan Smith made it 10-1 immediately with a fourth-inning solo shot.
Giolito lasted only 1⅓ innings, allowing seven runs on five hits and four walks. He threw just 25 pitches of 56 pitches for strikes, and two of the balls were wild pitches.
He could've gotten out of the first with no damage after fielding a comebacker to freeze runners on second and third for the second out, but a two-run double by Mitch Garver and an RBI single by Max Kepler put Minnesota up 3-0.
Giolito only retired one more batter on the night. He walked the first four batters of the second inning, with Grossman delivering two more runs with a single that chased Giolito from the game. Hector Santiago replaced him and gave up an RBI double to Garver that put the Twins up 7-0, and that's all they needed.
Giolito already owned the league's worst ERA among qualifying starters entering the evening, and now he'll suffer the indignity of it being over 6.00 (6.13). At least the Sox didn't burn his last option.
Was there any good news? Well, Jose Rondon hit his sixth homer, and Yolmer Sanchez hit his 10th triple after being stuck on nine since July 3, courtesy of a Jake Cave misplay. Yoan Moncada almost had a fine night at the plate, but was run up on a slider below the zone for strike three to end the game. That was Moncada's 215th strikeout of the year, making it unlikely that he'll tie the record of 223 with just two games remaining.
Bullet points:
*Santiago did the heavy lifting, allowing four runs on 10 baserunners over 4⅔ innings, but striking out seven to mitigate some of the damage. He threw 97 pitches out of the bullpen.
*Moncada committed his 20th error of the season on an Ehire Adrianza grounder in the fourth, but it led to no damage.
*The Twins actually struck out more than the Sox, 10-7, but Chase De Jong picked up his first career win, so hey.
Record: 62-98 | Box score
