Lucas Giolito was all over the place but found a way to pitch around seven walks, three wild pitches and a hit batter in White Sox’ win over the Cubs.
Lucas Giolito was all over the place, but some how, some way, he found a way to pitch around seven walks, three wild pitches, a hit batter and five stolen bases to give the White Sox a much needed 5-3 win over the Cubs Sunday at Wrigley Field.
How badly did the Sox need this one? They had hit rock bottom with a 9-27 start and came into the last game of a three-game series against the Cubs with seven straight losses and 11 in the last 12 games.
“I was just out of sync and stuff was kind of flying all over the place,” said Giolito (2-4,6.91 ERA), who threw exactly half of his 100 pitches for strikes and missed his target by a foot or more on numerous pitches over 5 2/3 topsy-turvy innings. “But I just stuck with it. I kind of feed off that energy from the crowd, from my teammates, so it’s definitely a really fun one. The Cubs-White Sox rivalry is pretty awesome and it was cool to get my first experience of that.”
Giolito labled it a good team win, and that it was with Matt Davidson hitting his second homer in two games and driving in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly against Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks, Nicky Delmonico belting a tying RBI triple off the wall and scored the go-ahead run on the offensive side. Left-hander Jace Fry pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Nate Jones (eighth inning) pitched a perfect eighth and Bruce Rondon (two strikeouts in the ninth for his first save) a scoreless ninth to nail it down and collect his first save.
“Huge, huge,” manager Rick Renteria said. “Those guys are enjoying this victory, to say the least. It was certainly a confidence builder, to say the least.”
“It means a little more against the Cubs because there are two teams in the city and we want to be the better team,” Jones said.
Jones was still smarting from giving up four runs and blowing a three-run lead to the Pirates in the ninth inning in last outing. He passed on using his sinking two-seam fastball and introduced a four-seamer, something he had been toying with on the side, against the Cubs.
“First time,” said Jones, who struck out Willson Contreras and retired Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber. “It worked like it’s supposed to. We’d been working on it and got to showcase it today, and from the reaction of hitters, it was good.”
Renteria, who bypassed Joakim Soria, stopped short of saying Rondon, who has seven career saves with the Tigers and 90 in the minor leagues is his new closer.
“Every time I go out there my mindset is like a closer,” Rondon said.
Second baseman Yoan Moncada (hamstring) tested his hamstring with agility drills and running and took batting practice and ground balls Sunday, inching closer to a likely return from the disabled list when the Sox open a two-game interleague set in Pittsburgh against the Pirates Tuesday.
“He’s doing very, very well and we’re hoping he’ll be back in the lineup soon,” Renteria said.
The Sox optioned infielder Jose Rondon to Class AAA Charlotte after the game to make room.
Renteria teared up, smiled and politely ended his Mother’s Day dugout session with media when asked about his mother, Angela, who passed away on April 25 at 91.
“She was awesome,” he said.
