Yankees have no answer for Lucas Giolito, fall to White Sox in opener
NEW YORK -- Liam Hendriks earned his first save since returning from cancer, Lucas Giolito pitched six hitless innings and the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on Tuesday night for their season-high fourth straight victory.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa ended Chicago's combined no-hit bid with a two-out RBI double in the seventh off reliever Joe Kelly. The ball fell between center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and left fielder Andrew Benintendi, allowing Willie Calhoun to score.
Josh Donaldson hit his third homer in three games on the first pitch from Hendriks in the bottom of the ninth. Hendriks then finished the two-hitter by getting three straight groundouts, punctuating the final out with a loud scream and a fist pump.
"It almost helps me when the stadium gets that loud," Hendriks said. "I think I tend to get a little better after that. For whatever reason, that helped me a little bit, lock in a little bit more than I had initially."
The All-Star reliever returned to the mound May 29 from stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. At first, the White Sox eased him in prior to the ninth inning, but he's back in the closer role now and got his first win of the season Sunday.
"That was one of those things where we weren't going to rush the situation," Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. "I thought we hit our pockets really well with how we planned it before the game, and it turned out that way. I'm happy to see him get that one out of the way and let's move forward."
Seby Zavala homered in consecutive at-bats off Clarke Schmidt (2-6), driving in all three White Sox runs as they won for the fifth time in six games.
Coming off his shortest two outings this year, Giolito (5-4) struck out seven and walked three while pitching under a hazy sky due to remnants of wildfires in Canada reaching the New York area.
"My last two I'm not proud of," Giolito said. "Coming into Yankee Stadium, definitely wanted to set the tone for this series. Coming off a sweep and wanted to keep the momentum going and I'm glad we were able to do that tonight."
Giolito threw 58 of 100 pitches for strikes and was removed after six innings without allowing a hit.
"He was really good," Zavala said. "Executed the game plan really well. He's back to where he was."
Giolito threw 23 pitches in the first when he issued consecutive two-out walks to Anthony Rizzo and Donaldson. The right-hander ended the inning by fanning rookie Anthony Volpe on a slider.
Giolito opened the fourth by using his fastball to get called third strikes on Rizzo and Donaldson. After Volpe walked and stole his first base since May 13, Giolito retired Calhoun on a soft grounder.
"Being able to get the out on the 3-2 count is massive as opposed to a walk or let them hang around and foul off a bunch of pitches," Giolito said. "Getting that out is huge for momentum."
Giolito ended his outing by reaching full counts against Giancarlo Stanton and Rizzo. Stanton whiffed on a called third strike and Rizzo flied out.
It was the third time Giolito pitched at least six hitless innings. Besides his no-hitter against against the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of an empty stadium in Chicago during the pandemic-shortened season on Aug. 25, 2020, he fired six hitless innings against Philadelphia on April 18.
"His command was really good," Donaldson said. "He made some big pitches in big counts."
Kelly fanned Donaldson and Volpe in the seventh before walking Calhoun. The right-hander was one strike from ending the inning before Kiner-Falefa doubled.
Jose Trevino followed with a clean single to right that put runners at the corners before Kelly escaped without further damage to preserve a 3-1 lead.
Kendall Graveman pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.
Zavala had his second career multi-homer game by homering in the third and fifth. He hit a 320-foot shot down the right-field line - the shortest at Yankee Stadium since Statcast began tracking in 2015 - and a 435-foot drive into the left-field bleachers for a 3-0 lead.
Schmidt allowed three runs and six hits in six innings.
TRAINER'S ROOM
White Sox: OF Billy Hamilton (strained left hamstring) went 0 for 3 in his first rehab game for Triple-A Charlotte.
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (shoulder strain) will be placed on the injured list Wednesday and his scheduled start will be made by rookie Randy Vásquez. ... CF Harrison Bader (strained right hamstring) started baseball activities and could return from the IL next week.
UP NEXT
White Sox RHP Lance Lynn (4-6, 6.55 ERA) opposes Vásquez (0-1, 3.86) on Wednesday night.
