Chicago White Sox starter Lucas Giolito admits he watched his team’s at-bats Tuesday a little more closely than he would have against a pitcher he doesn’t personally know.
Giolito was quite familiar with St. Louis Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty, his high school teammate.
Giolito outdueled Flaherty, and the Sox took advantage of some spotty defense from the Cardinals in an 8-3 victory in front of 16,380 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“I know how good he is, so I just wanted to bring my best stuff and try and go as deep as I could and limit the damage, and luckily we were able to pull that one out,” Giolito said. “Once the game was going on, it was the same as any other. Just the focus on what I was doing.”
Giolito (4-4) allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits with five strikeouts and no walks in six innings.
“He’s talented, tough, and he’s courageous,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said.
Flaherty (8-1) lasted just 3? innings and suffered his first loss of the season. He allowed seven runs (three earned) on six hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
“I was just trying to keep making pitches and try to execute,” Flaherty told St. Louis reporters. “(Giolito) threw the ball well tonight. He did what he’s good at. My hat’s off to him.”
Flaherty surrendered a two-run home run to José Abreu, who went 2-for-5 with four RBIs. Flaherty was also hurt by a Cardinals defense that committed three errors.
“The way the game went early on, I don’t want to speak too much on the other team’s defense, but it made the game very weird,” Giolito said. “It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, but that’s just how it went. Baseball’s weird sometimes.
“Our team took advantage early, and I was able to do my job.”
Giolito and Flaherty attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. Giolito was a senior in 2012 when Flaherty was a sophomore. The team also featured Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried. Their pitching coach was Ethan Katz, who is in his first season in the same role with the Sox.
“Maybe in previous years I’d kind of look into it and maybe get caught up into it, be thinking about all that outside noise leading up to it,” Giolito said. “For this one, it was great. We took pictures and stuff, Ethan and Jack (Monday). I feel like now I’m able to enjoy these kinds of moments and these kinds of experiences rather than stressing about them.
“When it comes time to stepping between the lines, I’m going to do my job and just stay on my path, have my focus at the glove, execute my pitches and kind of drown everything else out. I’d say I’ve gotten better in that sense.”
The Sox took advantage of two Cardinals errors and scored twice in the first. Tim Anderson reached on a fielding error by shortstop Edmundo Sosa and scored when Abreu grounded out to Flaherty.
Yermín Mercedes then hit a routine liner to right that Tommy Edman dropped. Instead of the third out, Adam Eaton scored.
Nick Madrigal knocked in a run with a single and Yoán Moncada drew a bases-loaded walk during a three-run second. Madrigal scored on a wild pitch, making it 5-0.
“You have to give credit to our hitters for capitalizing,” La Russa said.
Before the top of the fourth, the training staff looked at Giolito while he warmed up. La Russa said it was leg tightness that caught their attention.
“In the third inning, just on a couple pitches I felt like a little tightness on my follow-through on my right side there and I was able to get out of the inning,” Giolito said. “I didn’t think it was too bad, and so I would go out there and they just wanted to kind of monitor my warmup pitches in that next inning to make sure everything was good.
“It was good, and went three more (innings). Called it a night there, and then we’ll see how it’s all feeling leading up to this next start.”
Abreu’s 420-foot home run to left in the fourth, his team-leading 10th of the season, gave the Sox a 7-2 lead. Abreu drove in another run with a single against reliever Junior Fernández.
In addition to the unique starting pitching matchup, history was made when umpire Joe West worked his major-league-record 5,376th regular-season game. There was a video tribute before the game.
“It was tough to hold back a tear or two, but Tom Hanks says there’s no crying in baseball so you can’t do it,” West said. “It was a very nice thing.”
The game ended with a called third strike by West, as Sox closer Liam Hendriks struck out Edman. Hendriks entered with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth and struck out the next three for his 10th save.
“We tested him with some really difficult situations,” La Russa said. “He’s a pitcher with really good stuff. He has two or three ways he can go after a hitter. We are lucky to have him.
“When he called that last strike, the first thing I told all the guys, I said, ‘I love Joe West’ because that ended the game. It’s an amazing moment for him and he earns every bit of it.”
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