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White Sox Game Recaps

White Sox 4, Astros 0: Lucas Giolito twirls four-hitter

White Sox win

If Lucas Giolito had one blemish during his otherwise encouraging start to the 2019 season, it was that he'd built his improved line against bad teams. He was 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA over 28⅔ innings against offenses in the bottom half of the league, but a 7.53 ERA against the American League's better lineups.

Throwing a four-hit shutout against the league's best offense certainly puts a dent in that critique.

After tossing a rain-shortened complete game against Toronto his last time out, Giolito threw the first real complete game of the Rick Renteria era. He allowed just four singles, a walk and a hit batter while striking out nine, and threw a whopping 82 strikes out of 107 pitches. He didn't throw a ball in three separate innings:

    • Second inning: 11 pitches, 11 strikes.
    • Fifth inning: Nine pitches, nine strikes.
    • Seventh inning: Six pitches, six strikes.

He bullied the Astros with a fastball that average 94.8 mph, and topped out at 97.3 mph. While his changeup was his primary secondary pitch (24 of them), his slider did more damage, as he induced seven swinging strikes out of just 20 pitches.

The Astros hit several balls hard, but Giolito received fine support behind him. Jose Abreu made a couple of picks on hot shots, including a 3-6-3-6 double play in the first inning (he stepped on first and caught Josh Reddick in a pickle). Yoan Moncada saved his valuable face by getting his glove up on a laser by Yuli Gurriel, and Eloy Jiménez caught both hard line drives hit his way, albeit with a minimal amount of grace. He flagged down another Gurriel sizzler with an awkward-but-well-timed leap in the seventh, then scrambled to make a sliding catch on Alex Bregman's sinking liner after originally breaking back to end the eighth.

As for the White Sox offense, it used an excellent sequence of plate appearances against rookie Corbin Martin in the third inning to provide the winning margin.

Yolmer Sanchez started the inning by getting ahead 3-0, falling into a full count, then lofting a fly off the face of the Crawford boxes for a leadoff double. Charlie Tilson then kept the bat on his shoulder during a five-pitch walk, and after Yoan Moncada watched the first four pitches of his at-bat for a 3-1 count, he shot the next pitch over first base for an RBI double.

Tim Anderson counted on Martin returning to the zone, and his aggressiveness was rewarded with a single through the left side that scored Tilson and moved Moncada to third. Anderson then drew one pickoff throw that almost picked him off, and a second one that sailed over the head of the first baseman to make it a 3-0 game.

Eloy Jiménez added to the lead in the fourth inning, smoking a 19-degree laser out to left for a solo shot.

The White Sox left traffic on the basepaths in a couple other innings, and a couple of failed bunt attempts played a part. In the seventh, Leury García whiffed on a safety squeeze attempt with runners on the corners and one out, and he eventually struck out. Tilson tried bunting a pair of runners over after a walk and a single started the eighth, but he fouled it off en route to the first of three strikeouts to end the inning.

All in all, the White Sox were an unremarkable 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Then again, the Astros were 0-for-1.

Bullet points:

*Every White Sox starter had a hit save Yonder Alonso, who went 0-for-3. He did draw a walk in his last plate appearance.

*Anderson and Sanchez reached base three times.

*James McCann stole his third base in as many attempts.

Record: 23-26 | Box score | Highlights

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