Lucas Giolito sets White Sox record with 8 consecutive strikeouts

In the White Sox’ 6-3 loss to the Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field, Giolito struck out a franchise-record eight consecutive batters.

If someone told right-hander Lucas Giolito last season that he would’ve done what he did in his record-setting outing on Thursday, he wouldn’t have believed them.

Neither would’ve catcher James McCann nor manager Rick Renteria.

In the White Sox’ 6-3 loss to the Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field, Giolito struck out a franchise-record eight consecutive batters — and he did it efficiently, too, throwing only 34 pitches.

When Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez finally broke Giolito’s strikeout streak with a ground out to end the fifth inning, Royals manager Ned Yost stood up and screamed like his team had hit a game-winning homer.

“I didn’t want to see nine consecutive strikeouts,” Yost told reporters after the game. “Giolito has been tough on us all year long. The improvements he has made have been impressive. His development as a pitcher is probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen all year long.”

In the moment, Giolito didn’t even realize he struck out eight-straight batters.

“I thought it was six in a row, I forgot the first two,” he said. “I pretty much [felt] fully confident in every pitch I was throwing. Like I knew the result before I threw the pitch, that kind of feeling. When you have that feeling as a pitcher you want to ride it out as long as you can.”

Unfortunately, Giolito lost his groove in the sixth. After walking his first batter and allowing a single to the second, Giolito gave up a three-run homer to third baseman Hunger Dozier.

But rather than making a bad inning uglier — which happened frequently in 2018 — Giolito kept his composure and finished with three-straight outs.

In total, Giolito recorded 12 strikeouts in six innings of work. It’s the sixth time he’s had 10 or more strikeouts in an outing in 2019.

“The stuff was good today. Good fastball, changeup,” Renteria said. “The eight strikeouts in a row shows you the ability he has to shut down the offense.”

Giolito’s rise from one of the worst pitchers in the major leagues last season to being one of the best this season has been well documented. His performance Thursday was just another reminder to the Sox that Giolito’s stuff is here to stay.

“He’s well on his way to being an excellent big-league starter for us,” Renteria said. “And we are expecting and anticipating it’s going to be a big piece of us moving forward the rest of the year and next year and the coming years.”

Third baseman Yoan Moncada went 3-for-5 with one strikeout. And shortstop Tim Anderson, who leads the American League with a .333 batting average this season, went 2-for-5.

Though with Thursday’s loss the Sox (64-82) are officially locked into their seventh consecutive sub-.500 season, Renteria believes there are brighter days ahead.

“I’m expecting that this is it,” he said. “We are trying to win. I think we talk about it, we are going through it. I know there’s still refining to do, but I’ll be honest with you. We are finishing this season, we are talking about coming into next season ready to battle, period, exclamation point. That’s what we are looking to do.”