KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The results weren't good in spring training for Lucas Giolito. That after the results weren't good during his first full season in the major leagues in 2018.
But during that rocky spring, Giolito insisted he felt good throwing the ball. Sunday, in his first start of the regular season, Giolito got how he felt to align with the results, pitching an absolute gem in a 6-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Giolito had the South Side baseball world on no-hitter watch. After issuing a four-pitch walk to the first hitter, he retired the next 19 batters he faced. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Alex Gordon singled to center field to end the no-hit bid, and Giolito lasted just three more batters after that, exiting before the seventh was through. But that did little to tarnish what was an excellent 2019 debut for a pitcher looking to bounce back in a big way from a woeful 2018.
"It feels good to start off on a good note," Giolito said after the game. "Throughout my whole career, I've always had not as good starts earlier in the year and I wanted to change that this year and start off on a good note.
"In spring, it was just feeling out pitch sequencing, what works, what doesn't work, because my stuff is moving a little bit different than it did in previous years. The last two, three years, I kind of had to figure out ways to get guys out when my stuff was flat or I didn't have my pitches working. Now, I feel like I have confidence throwing every pitch every time I go out there. Just getting sequencing going, scouting reports and all that and then getting into that good rhythm starting a game and throwing as many quality pitches as I can."
That's exactly what happened Sunday, Giolito completely silencing the Royals through the first six innings while his offense went out and scored six runs. Ryan Burr needed just one pitch to clean up the seventh, then the White Sox new back end of the bullpen, Kelvin Herrera and Alex Colome, closed things out. That's exactly how the White Sox drew it up when planning best-case scenarios prior to the start of the season.
Sunday's effort was a carryover from the spring, even if the results were complete opposites. After leading baseball's qualified pitchers in ERA and WHIP and leading the American League in walks in 2018, Giolito made some tweaks during the offseason and supposedly came to camp in Glendale, Arizona, in a different, better state. But in five Cactus League appearances, he was lit up to the tune of an 8.84 ERA.
MLB
Giolito kept saying that he felt good despite those results, and that's the pitcher that showed up Sunday at Kauffman Stadium. He gave White Sox fans a reminder of why he was once ranked the No. 1 pitching prospect in the game, why he was such a big deal when he was acquired for Adam Eaton and why he had everyone so excited when he did complete a no-hitter, albeit a seven-inning one, at Triple-A Charlotte in 2017.
"What he came into camp with, changed a little bit of his arm swing, staying behind the ball, that's what we saw (today)," manager Rick Renteria said. "The fact that he put it together in today's ballgame, for us, was excellent. It's very positive for him, the confidence that he's able to build on it and the reality that he's been getting better and focused on what he wants to do moving forward."
"He's young. He's still figuring things out. You never stop figuring things out, no matter how long you play this game," catcher James McCann said. "He made some adjustments this offseason, and I could tell from bullpen No. 1 I caught in spring training, his stuff was a lot more electric and had a lot more life. It showed today."
While the White Sox aren't expected to contend for a playoff spot this year, perhaps lowering the stakes on young pitchers like Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Carlos Rodon, Giolito's rough 2018 kicked him out of the long-term conversation regarding the starting rotation of the future in the minds of many White Sox fans. And so there's something to prove this year, even if not to himself or to White Sox brass, which maintained its level of confidence in Giolito during the offseason. One performance in March won't write Giolito's 2019 story. He'll need to put together another six months of good outings to work his way back into that conversation.
But putting everyone on no-hit watch — and putting the White Sox in the win column for the first time this season — was a heck of a way to start that process.
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