Fighting fatigue in the second half, Lucas Giolito has seen a bit of a regression from the first half. The 2019 All-Star kept opponents to a slash line of .194/.276/.315 in his first 100 innings. In the last 30.1 innings, Giolito has seen hitters achieve more success with big jumps across the board hitting .269/.320/.504. It’s very plausible that Giolito may be running out of steam after such a great first half.
| HR/9 | K% | BB% | AVG | WHIP | BABIP | LOB% | FIP | xFIP | |
| 1st Half | 0.81 | 30.1 | 9.5 | 0.194 | 1.07 | 0.262 | 75.0 | 3.21 | 3.95 |
| 2nd Half | 1.76 | 29.5 | 7.0 | 0.269 | 1.34 | 0.342 | 79.8 | 4.16 | 3.88 |
Looking at the advanced metrics, Giolito hasn’t seen a significant drop in K% and has cut his walk rate by 2.5%. While the FIP is almost a run higher in the second half, his xFIP is slightly below. What appears to be causing the big jump in success for opposing hitters is they are hitting the changeup. Having no success against Giolito’s offspeed in May and June, the tables appeared to have turned since July.
Facing Oakland, a patient offense with surprising power, Giolito had to navigate his way around a lineup featuring five left-handed hitters prepared to wait for the changeup.
Tim Anderson had an excellent start to the game, making a terrific defensive play against Marcus Semien. On a grounder deep in the hole, Anderson made a fadeaway throw across the diamond for the game’s first out. Giolito would follow with strikeouts against Nick Martini and Matt Chapman on high fastball’s. Anderson would hit a double, his 18th of the season, but would be stranded on third base.
Oakland was threatening in the second inning as Matt Olson and Robbie Grossman both hit singles off changeups. Giolito would keep Olson and Grossman from scoring posting two more strikeouts against Mark Canha and Chad Pinder.
White Sox would strand another runner on third base in the second inning. Eloy Jimenez walked to lead off the inning and would reach second base on Matt Skole’s infield single against the shift. Yolmer Sanchez would follow with a fly out to right field, but it was deep enough for Jimenez to tag up and advance to third. However, it wasn’t deep enough for Skole to try and follow Jimenez on the basepath. From the cutoff man, Skole was cut down at second base for the second out. Ryan Goins struck out to end the threat.
Giolito mowed down the A’s in order striking out the side all with the high fastball. After three innings, Giolito had seven strikeouts in just 41 pitches. A reversal of fortune occurred for Giolito in the fourth inning. Matt Chapman almost hit an opposite-field home run that was saved by Jon Jay.
As he high pointed the ball, Jay had the ball in his glove but when coming back down his arm hit the wall and jarred the ball out limiting Chapman to a double. Matt Olson would later hit a ball far enough that Jay couldn’t reach for a two-run homer, his 23rd of the season. In all, Giolito allowed three hits in the fourth inning, all extra-base hits, and saw his pitch count climb to 64 pitches.
That inning would be his only blemish. Giolito struck out two more in the fifth inning. In his last frame of the afternoon, struck out the side again with the punch out being three different pitches: changeup, slider, and fastball. Altogether, Giolito was terrific still with his final line 6 IP 5 H 2 ER 13 K 1 BB setting a new career-high for strikeouts in a game.
Meanwhile, Chris Bassitt made it look easy against the White Sox offense. Anderson’s first-inning double was the only extra-base hit allowed as Bassitt pitched seven scoreless innings. In two starts against his former club in 2019, Bassitt pitched 13 scoreless innings.
Game Notes
- White Sox finish the season series against the Athletics going 1-5 and being outscored 32-8.
- Jimmy Cordero pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen with three strikeouts.
- Kelvin Herrera made his return from the Injured List recording the last two outs in the ninth inning
Record: 52-64 | Box Score | Highlights
