CHICAGO — Lucas Giolito felt a familiar but uncomfortable feeling while pitching in the fifth inning of a 4-2 White Sox victory over the Pirates Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Giolito left with one out in the frame due to left hamstring tightness and will be re-evaluated Wednesday. Back in 2019, Giolito had to leave an April start against the Royals in the third inning with a strained left hamstring and ended up missing action from April 18 to May 1.
“The sensation I felt on the pitch wasn’t as intense and painful as in 2019,” Giolito said. “So that kind of gives me some confidence that hopefully it won’t be very serious and I’ll come back pretty soon … It came out of nowhere. I’ve been feeling really good, strong. Legs, arm, everything’s been feeling good. So, it’s unfortunate.”
Earlier in that inning, Giolito slipped slightly fielding Ben Gamel’s tapper to the right of the mound and that slip allowed Gamel to beat the throw to first. The right-hander was checked on by manager Tony La Russa, pitching coach Ethan Katz and head athletic trainer James Kruk after the play, but stayed in the game upon indicating he was OK and proceeded to allow a run to score on a wild pitch, cutting the White Sox lead to 2-1.
The discomfort didn’t start for Giolito until two pitches into that ensuing at-bat against Wilmer Difo, with Giolito not being able to finish the particular matchup. But Giolito didn’t think the slip on the swinging bunt contributed to the injury. Katz visited Giolito again on the mound, but after missing badly on two more pitches to Difo, the crew came out to visit one more time. Giolito made one more warmup pitch and handed the ball to La Russa.
Ryan Tepera replaced Giolito with the tying run on second and gave up Colin Moran’s single to right to tie the game. That inherited runner allowed to score was the only blip for a stellar White Sox bullpen effort on the night, as Tepera, Michael Kopech, Aaron Bummer, Craig Kimbrel and Liam Hendriks (30th save) combined to record the final 14 outs, allowing one hit and striking out four.
“We’ve had so many games this year where the starters have done their part and gone very deep into games. We haven’t been needed out there,” Kopech said. “This was one of those nights where we were needed for a short start and it wasn’t anything to do with how he pitched.
“He was pitching great and it was unfortunate he came across that with his hamstring. For us to be able to do our job when we were needed, that’s the whole name of the game right now. Everybody is stepping up and doing their part, especially going into September and hopefully October.”
In reality, two of those 14 outs should be partially credited to center fielder Luis Robert. The Gold Glove center fielder made a 5-star catch to end the eighth with a running, diving grab of Jacob Stallings’ line drive to left-center. It was the second career 5-star catch for Robert, per Statcast, as he also took a hit away from Yoshi Tsutsugo with a sliding catch to start the ninth.
“The guy is unreal out there. It seems like he was kind of built in a lab a lot of times,” Kopech said. “He wants to play every day and so to see him make plays like that day in and day out, it’s pretty cool.”
“Gazelle. He’s got the stride where he eats up ground,” La Russa said of Robert. “He’s just gliding along and all of a sudden, you look where he started and where he got to, man, he’s fast. He really runs so beautifully that it really doesn’t look like he covers much ground or is working as hard, but he is.”
A two-run sixth gave the White Sox (77-56) their victory margin, with home runs from Yasmani Grandal and José Abreu pushing them to an early 2-0 lead. Grandal has four home runs and 11 RBIs in his four games since returning from an injury rehab assignment following surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left knee, while Abreu has 28 homers and a Major League-high 102 RBIs.
Giolito allowed two runs over 4 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and four walks. Although he’s hoping not to miss too much time, the White Sox will be cautious with their Opening Day starter.
“We’re taking it serious, obviously,” La Russa said. “For him to come out of the game, we’re going to give a serious look.”
“I can’t see it being very long,” Giolito said. “We’ll get it looked at tomorrow and go from there.”
