Friends now foes: Sox's Giolito starts vs. Flaherty

They are close friends and former high school teammates.

On Tuesday night, Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty will be foes for the first time.

In the second game of an interleague series at Guaranteed Rate Field, Giolito starts for the White Sox and Flaherty gets the ball for the Cardinals.

"This is stuff we talked about in high school, in the minor leagues," Giolito said. "We get to face each other. The one thing going my way is we're playing at our park so I don't have to step in the box against him and he doesn't have to against me. He has lot more experience than I do.

"He hit his first homer a couple weeks ago. So I'm glad we have the DH in but yeah, it's very exciting. It should be pretty fun, there's a lot of friends and family coming out, too."

Giolito and Flaherty attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, and Braves starter Max Fried was also a prep teammate.

"Lucas was one of the first guys, when I was a freshman, he was a junior, he was one of the first guys to introduce himself to me," Flaherty said. "He doesn't remember that, I do. I kind of went with him everywhere.

"I was always close with him. Max the same once he got there, but Lucas started when I was a freshman and my sophomore year, we were close."

Giolito (3-4, 4.35 ERA) and Flaherty (8-0, 2.53) are not only friends, they're two of the better starters in baseball.

"It's like the same as facing really good pitchers around the league," Giolito said. "But at the same time, it's just a really fun moment for both of us. And once the game starts we're going to focus on what we do, not focus on who's pitching. I'm just going to be hoping that we're scoring a lot of runs."