Giolito, White Sox Post 2nd Win Of Day, Beat Royals 4-3
CHICAGO (AP) — Lucas Giolito was behind schedule, out of sync and in a hole. Rather than unravel, he regrouped in a big way.
Giolito struck out 10 while winning his fifth straight start and the Chicago White Sox posted their second victory of the day, beating the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Hours after Yolmer Sanchez hit an RBI single in the ninth inning to give Chicago a 2-1 win in the resumption of a suspended game, Giolito (7-1) put on quite a performance.
The right-hander gave up a three-run homer to Alex Gordon in the first, then retired 22 of his final 24 batters. Giolito allowed three hits over eight innings, matched a career high for strikeouts and improved to 6-0 in his past eight starts. In his previous outing, he threw his first career shutout, a four-hitter against Houston.
"I didn't warm up to my normal schedule," Giolito said. "I wasn't paying attention to the start time of the second game and so I was a little late. That first inning was like a continuation of my warmup, I guess you could say. Not fully locked in from the get-go."
Giolito was inadvertently preparing for the usual 7:10 p.m. start, rather than a 6:40 first pitch. That threw him off early on, but he made quite a recovery.
Alex Colome worked the ninth for his 10th save in 10 chances after getting the win earlier in the day. And the White Sox made it back-to-back victories after losing six of eight.
Brad Keller (3-6) gave up four runs and 10 hits in six innings for Kansas City. The Royals have lost nine of 12.
The White Sox tied it in the third on an RBI single by Leury Garcia and back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jose Abreu and Yonder Alonso. Charlie Tilson made it 4-3 with an RBI single in the fourth.
"Credit to (Giolito)," Whit Merrifield said. "He buckled down, made a lot of good pitches, didn't miss a lot and kept us off balance."
