As the offense continues to find its identity, the White Sox pitching staff continues to ensure the team doesn’t fall too far in the standings. Lucas Giolito didn’t have his best stuff this evening, but he battled through six innings of one run baseball while Jake Burger provided enough offense to ensure the White Sox won their season series against the Red Sox on a rainy night in Chicago.
Giolito’s night didn’t get off to the best of starts, as he threw 27 pitches in a first inning in which he retired the first two batters. A walk and a few seeing eye singles had the Red Sox on the board 1-0 early in this one. However, when it was all said and done, Giolito was able to finish six strong innings for the Sox, giving up just the one run while striking out 7, albeit walking 4 batters – like I said, he didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled like an ace all night. Giolito was followed by scoreless outings by Aaron Bummer, Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly (who left the game with an injury), and Liam Hendriks. Not every inning was clean, and Graveman particularly came close to giving away the lead, but in the end, just one run for Boston was all that crossed the plate.
On the offense, Rich Hill carved up the Sox for four no-hit innings before the Pale Hose finally got something going in the fifth. After a double by Jose Abreu and a reach on error by AJ Pollock, Jake Burger hammered an 0-2 67 mph curveball 444 feet into the left field bleachers to give the Sox the 3-1 lead they would not give up. The offense only totaled five hits on the night, walking three times and striking out four times. Not much to speak for outside of Burger, who truly was the offensive hero tonight.
With the win, the White Sox improve to 22-21 on the season, 4.5 games back of the Twins in the AL Central.
W: Lucas Giolito (3-1) | L: Rich Hill (1-2) | S: Liam Hendriks (14)
StatCast Breakdown
Box Score
Offensive Recap:
Pitching Recap:
White Sox Scoring Recap:
Bottom 5th: Jake Burger homers (3) to LF. Jose Abreu, AJ Pollock score. 3-1 White Sox
Notable Performances
Lucas Giolito: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K
Giolito was far from his best tonight, however, aces are able to hold down solid lineups even without their best stuff. That’s exactly what Giolito did here tonight, as he battled himself constantly but was able to hold down a scorching hot Red Sox’ offense over six strong innings of work. The right hander lowered his season ERA to 2.63 in the process.
Jake Burger: 1-for-3, HR (3), 3 RBI, R
He was the entire offense tonight, so he deserves the “notable performance” here. Burger was called up just yesterday to take Luis Robert’s spot, and he continues to show he can play at the highest level.
Jose Abreu: 1-for-2, 2B, 2 BB, R
Shout out to Jose Abreu here, who didn’t do anything too flashy tonight, but ended the no-hit bid by Rich Hill and had some pretty quality at-bats throughout the evening.
The Next Matchup
The Red Sox and White Sox will play the conclusion of this season series and the rubber match of this current series tomorrow evening. Dallas Keuchel will take the hill for the White Sox, and the Red Sox will send out Michael Wacha to oppose him.
The game can be viewed at 7:10 PM CT over on NBC Sports Chicago.
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