ATLANTA -- It looked like it was going to be another one of those nights for the White Sox pitching rotation.
With ace Lucas Giolito on the mound on Sunday afternoon at SunTrust Park, Chicago desperately needed a good start after Ivan Nova and Reynaldo López combined for just 4 2/3 innings over the first two games in Atlanta. After getting ahead of Braves leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr., Giolito threw four straight balls. He then gave up a one-out home run to Freddie Freeman.
But instead of falling apart, Giolito buckled down and gave the White Sox six strong innings, allowing just three hits and no walks after the game’s first three batters while striking out seven. It didn’t end up being enough, however, as the White Sox fell, 5-3.
“I’ll take his start today again seven days a week,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “And there are times where he’s going to be even better than that. He was pretty good, I mean he’d only given up two or three hits up to that point before they did what they did.”
All four runs came on two-run homers from Freeman, who repeated in the sixth at the end of a nine-pitch battle, which started with Giolito getting ahead, 0-2.
“The only thing to take away from that is it was a hell of a battle and he got me there,” Giolito said. “Wasn't able to execute on the last one and he made me pay for it. That's how it is.”
Between those two homers, Giolito retired of 16 of 17 batters, including a stretch of 14 straight immediately after Freeman’s first homer. He struck out seven of those 17 batters including striking out the side in the fifth.
Giolito’s success came by attacking the zone and mixing his fastball, changeup and slider. Three of his strikeouts came on fastballs high in the zone, another two on changeups for a called strike three, and the final two came on the slider.
Giolito relied primarily on his fastball, throwing it for 50 of 86 pitches. With two strikes, he upped his changeup usage, throwing 11 of his 24 on the night, while he threw almost all of his sliders earlier in the count. The Braves put those two pitches in play just eight times and whiffed on 11 of 19 swings, and only one of the Braves’ four hits came on an offspeed pitch.
“I was feeling good, pitches were working pretty well today,” Giolito said. “Fastball good, changeup good. A few solid sliders. It was a pretty good day, until the end.”
Even with the two homers, Giolito might’ve been able to come out on top, but he got almost no assistance from his offense. Except for an RBI single from José Abreu in the seventh, the only other White Sox offense came when Giolito drove in two with a single in the second, just his second career hit.
At the time, the single tied the game, and the White Sox dugout went wild for its right-handed hurler.
“Got a hittable pitch and was able to drive it to the outfield and get some runs in,” Giolito said. “It's always cool being able to hit and getting on base.”