Major League Baseball hasn't yet named its Pitcher of the Month for May, but if Lucas Giolito somehow doesn't win it, he's getting a start on June.
Giolito picked up his sixth straight win with 7⅓ dominant innings, and the White Sox have now won seven consecutive games he's started. They accomplished this one with minimal support from Tim Anderson, who hit a no-doubt solo shot in the fourth, then a two-out RBI double in the eighth that allowed everybody to breathe a bit easier.
But this was Giolito's day, and he's having a lot of those. He scattered just four singles and a double, striking out nine without walking a soul. Facing a lineup that's almost entirely left-handed, he once again stuck to a relatively straightforward approach in terms of arsenal: 53 fastballs, 36 changeups, and just 12 breaking balls.
Yet he got 18 swinging strikes due to a couple more subtle shifts. If I were to phrase it in the form of Three Stars of the Game, I'd rank them:
Third star: Curveball. He threw 11 curves, his most since his third start of the season against the Yankees. It only got one whiff, but it gained him four strikes without a ball in play, and gave hitters a different look later in the game.
Second star: Fastball. He averaged 95 and generated eight whiffs, so he was feeling that.
First star: Changeup. How much confidence did Giolito have in his offspeed pitch? He doubled up on it four times, he tripled up on it three times, and he quadrupled up on it once. He threw eight changeups out of 12 pitches to Carlos Santana, and Santana went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Rick Renteria also pulled him at the right time, coming out with the hook after Giolito lost five-pitch battle to Roberto Perez with one out in the eighth. That brought lefty Leonys Martin to the plate, who took Iván Nova deep for a ringing blast the day before. On deck was Francisco Lindor, who had two of the five Cleveland hits.
Renteria called for Aaron Bummer, and so Terry Francona went with the righty Jordan Luplow for the matchup advantage. It didn't work, as Luplow grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
Lindor ended up getting a third hit, but by the time it happened, Anderson had stretched the Sox' lead to 2-0, staying back on a 1-2 curveball long enough to line it to left for a double. Lindor doubled off Alex Colomé for only the second hit off the Sox closer in save situations, but thanks in part to a diving catch by Ryan Cordell, Colomé retired the next three hitters in order to preserve the shutout.
Zach Plesac -- nephew of Dan -- was almost as good as Giolito, allowing just four hits and a walk while striking out seven. One of those hits just happened to be a resounding blast by Anderson, who dropped the bat and walked several steps toward first before firing up his trot.
Anderson short-circuited another potential threat by getting picked off, but he came through with the eighth-inning double for the only hit with runners in scoring position all day. The Sox were 1-for-3, and Cleveland went 0-for-5.
Bullet points:
*Leury García also did his part in terms of run prevention, covering a lot of ground to make a catch on the warning track in right center, then breaking in nicely on a liner that wasn't hit all that hard in the eighth. He also drew two walks, which was uncharacteristic.
*This is the first Sox-Indians series that didn't result in a split this year. The Sox won three out of four, so they're 7-5 against the Indians after a 6-1 homestand, and the teams are tied for second in the Central again.
Record: 29-30 | Box score | Highlights
