CHICAGO -- Left-hander Dallas Keuchel was working on abnormally short rest while pitching six innings of the White Sox 10-3 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field.
But the reason for his bleary-eyed demeanor was a good one, as he stayed until the last out on Tuesday, when Lucas Giolito threw the 19th no-hitter in franchise history.
“It was special, man,” said Keuchel after improving to 5-2 overall with Wednesday’s effort. “I planned on leaving halfway through the game and it kind of kept creeping up in innings, so then I was like, ‘I can’t really go right now in case something special happens.’
“Got towards about the seventh, and then I was going to get mad at him if it didn’t happen, because I was sacrificing my sleep for the sake of him. But it was special. There are no words to describe something like that, and that’s what you potentially can get at the ballpark every day. We all love baseball, and the added touch of something like that doesn’t get any better.”
Any drama involving Keuchel following Giolito with a second straight no-hitter was erased when Cole Tucker singled on a first-pitch sinker to start the game. But any thought of the Pirates, sitting last in the National League Central with the worst record in baseball, being able to derail the red-hot White Sox also was quickly pushed aside by a four-run bottom of the second.
The White Sox swept the two-game series and have gone 9-1 in their last 10, with seven straight home victories in the mix. They sit a season-best seven over .500 at 19-12, and with the one-two punch of Giolito and Keuchel at the top of the rotation, they look more like a team to be reckoned with in the postseason as opposed to a team simply trying to get there.
“This is what we knew we had, and it's been nice,” Keuchel said. “Probably the last 10 games, 10 days, quality at-bat after quality at-bat. That's not fun for the opposing pitchers. I don't care if you're a perennial Cy Young winner or rookie trying to make his mark on the game. When you've got a hot team, pretty much top to bottom, that's tough to navigate through.”
“Obviously, Giolito had the performance of his life last night, and then we get to [follow] a no-hitter with a former Cy Young winner,” Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said. “But to compete in this league, you’ve got to hit the best and be able to compete with the best, so definitely no nights off in the big leagues anymore.”
Keuchel allowed four hits and two runs, striking out seven and walking three. His 97-pitch effort followed his 114-pitch win in Friday’s victory at Wrigley Field. Over five August starts, the veteran southpaw has allowed nine earned runs in 32 2/3 innings.
The power bats also returned, as the White Sox hit three home runs off Pirates starter Trevor Williams. Danny Mendick launched an opposite-field two-run shot in the second, Edwin Encarnación connected on a 435-foot blast in the fourth and Eloy Jiménez hit a three-run opposite-field shot in the fifth. José Abreu added a two-run homer off Pirates reliever Tyler Bashlor in the seventh, giving him seven in his last five games and extending his hit streak to 10.
“Abreu is one of the best hitters in baseball, and he's red-hot right now,” Jiménez said. “I feel happy for him, because he works hard every single day, and he deserves it.”
Jiménez’s homer, his 10th of the season, extended his hitting streak to seven games. He wasn’t supposed to start on Wednesday after tweaking his right ankle during the Giolito celebration, but he talked his way into the lineup and raised his average to .315 and his OPS to .972.
Even if Jiménez had been unable to go, he knows there are plenty of others in this potent lineup to pick up the slack. It’s a well-rounded group with strong defense and a rotation that has allowed 40 earned runs in its last 132 1/3 innings, covering 25 starts.
“I'm glad I'm on this side right now and we have the ability to keep it going,” Keuchel said. “So I'm anxious to see pitching, defense, hitting. I'm anxious to see where it does head the last week of August and then the last 30 days in September."