Giolito dominates again in 2-0 victory

Tim Anderson homered and drove in the only runs in a good day for the rebuild

Perhaps the White Sox’s most exciting story this season continued this afternoon, as Lucas Giolito dominated Cleveland in a low-scoring victory. The White Sox came out on top 2-0 to take three out of four in this series.

Usually, zero walks and nine strikeouts tells viewers all they need to know about how a pitcher performed, and today was no exception. Lucas Giolito was outstanding from start to finish, as only one Cleveland hitter managed to reach second base safely. That happened in the fifth inning, when Greg Allen doubled to right with one out. However, Giolito worked his way out of trouble with a flyout and a strikeout. Cleveland ended the afternoon 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.

Giolito’s final line: seven and one-third innings, zero runs, five hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts. This outstanding performance lowered his ERA to 2.54, as he is putting himself among the top starting pitchers in baseball. According to Fangraphs, he is now worth 2.6 WAR, which puts him in a tie for third in the majors among qualified pitchers. He trails only Max Scherzer and Matthew Boyd, while he is tied with Stephen Strasburg.

Offense was hard to come by in this matchup, but the offense we did see came primarily from Tim Anderson. Anderson hit this bomb, his ninth of the year. Also, check out this reaction to his homer unless you play for the Kansas City Royals.

With the White Sox still holding a 1-0 lead in the eighth, Anderson came up to bat with two outs, runners on first and second. With a big insurance run in scoring position, Anderson came through with an RBI double.

The bullpen took care of the rest. Giolito left with a runner on first and one out in the eighth, as Aaron Bummer came on in relief. Bummer promptly got Jordan Luplow to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. In the ninth, Alex Colomé pitched around a leadoff double, as he closed the door with a scoreless inning. Bummer and Colomé lowered their ERAs to 0.60 and 1.52, respectively.

The White Sox moved back into a tie for second place in the division. Both Cleveland and the White Sox now sit at 29-30. This was also the White Sox’s sixth win in their last seven games. They will travel to Washington D.C. for a brief two-game series against the Nationals (26-33). The first game of that series will start at 6:05 CST on Tuesday, and it will be the beginning of a five-game road trip.