White Sox-GIOstorm

The perfect storm was brewing for Lucas Giolito to have the best start of his 2020 season (7IP 3H 0ER 1BB  13K 110PC 1W). The Tigers were on a six-game losing streak coming into Thursday’s series finale against the White Sox. The White Sox, on the other hand, were coming in with a four-game winning streak. 

The White Sox were looking to have a four-game sweep of the Tigers for the first time since September of 2005. And, as extra motivation, this win would put the White Sox two games behind first place, the Minnesota Twins.  Giolito did not want to be the guy who stopped the winning streak before the crosstown series with the Chicago Cubs. He needed to make up for his lousy performance last Saturday against the Cardinals.

Giolito came out with all those things brewing for what ended up being the perfect storm for a to remember. Giolito had every pitch working in his favor. His fastball was locating with a velocity 94-95. The slider had a nice bite when he needed it, but the huge equalizer was his changeup. His changeup was unhittable and got him out the few jams he got into. Giolito tied a career-high in strikeouts with 13 punchouts on the day and was able to pitch seven innings for the first time this season. He also had a season-high in pitches with 110, but 70 were strikes, well above his season average. 

Giolito looked just as good late in the game as he did at the beginning; he struck out 5 of the last six batters he faced in the 6th and the 7th innings, and his velocity was still up there at 94-95MPH. It looks like last year, the Cy Young candidate is back and ready to take the ball every fifth day and pitch 6-8 innings again. Jimmy Cordero came in to pitch the last two innings and held the shutout for the White Sox, who won 9-0. 

The offense was on point with Jose Abreu (3-5 2R 2RBI) and Eloy Jimenez (3-4 2R 2RBI 1HR) leading the way; the team had 12 hits overall and two more home runs. The offense ended up outscoring the Tigers 31-9 and have outscored their opponents 38-11 in their past five games. 

White Sox fans have needed to have a lot of patience with this rebuild. We have seen in this five-game span that it was worth the wait, a young up-and-coming bullpen, and a great crop of starting pitching with Giolito, Cease, and Dunning. The start of what could be an untouchable rotation. The offense with zero easy outs is only going to get better as each hitter comes into his own. The new Chicago White Sox have arrived.  

There is no better chance to prove this than the Crosstown Classic against the Chicago Cubs. The White Sox head into their three-game series playing their best baseball of this season while the loveable losers have cooled down a little bit from their torrid start. The Cubs are still in first place in the NL Central by four games with a 16-8 record. 

The White Sox have a huge chance to prove they are the team that should not be ignored. The White Sox will run out Keuchel, Cease, and Gio Gonzalez while the Cubs will counter with Lester, Hendricks, and Darvish. The Cubs are running their three best starters out for this crosstown series, so the White Sox offense needs to be on it. This should be a great showdown in Chicago.