Emerging Sox ace Giolito gets back to business
On the original schedule, the White Sox were supposed to be hosting the Cubs Wednesday night.
The coronavirus obliterated that circle-the-calendar matchup, and it forced Major League Baseball to start training camp from scratch following a shutdown that was pushing four months.
There was baseball activity Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field. All things considered, it was pretty great.
A day before the Sox play their first intrasquad game of the new season, ace starting pitcher Lucas Giolito pitched a 3-inning simulated game.
There was no scoreboard keeping track of balls and strikes, no umpires, no fans in the seats. But it was live competition, and that is something that has been missing since COVID-19 halted play on March 12.
"Overall, it was good to be back out there," Giolito said after allowing 1 run while facing a stream of teammates that included Tim Anderson, Edwin Encarnacion, Eloy Jimenez, Yasmani Grandal and Luis Robert. "I only had one spring training game before everything go shut down. First inning, I felt was a nice pace, established some pitches there.
"Second inning, rushing. I felt like I was a little bit out of my mechanics and needed to make an adjustment. Third inning, bounced back. Made the necessary adjustment. It was a solid inning for me. Overall it was good work. I'm not going to fret over the results."
Giolito was the consummate rags-to-riches story last season, lowering his ERA from 6.13 in 2018 to 3.41. The -2.72 improvement was the third-best in baseball history.
Looking to take another step up this year, Giolito has no choice but to make the most of a challenging situation.
"I was putting in a lot of work in the offseason, spring training and even in the quarantine," the 25-year-old righty said.
Specifically, Giolito is trying to bring his curveball up to the same level as his fastball and changeup.
This is a tough season to polish up a new pitch, but Giolito showed last year that he's pretty good with what he's got.
"He worked so hard," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "It does take a lot for an individual to turn the tide. He continues to mature. Even as I saw him throw today, he is the guy you saw last year and he has a chance to do exactly the same things he did last year.
"There's no doubt in my mind. His approach, his demeanor, his delivery, the action of his pitches, now he goes into the league with everybody understanding what he did last year. Everybody's going to be looking at him and seeing him as an elite major-league pitcher and they're all going to be trying to figure out how they can get to him."
Giolito would have been the Sox's Opening Day starter on the original schedule, March 26 vs. the Royals. He still would like the honor when the White Sox open the new season on July 24 with a home game vs. the Twins.
"I absolutely want that," said Giolito, who finished seventh in the American League in Cy Young Award voting last season and seventh with 228 strikeouts. "The way I look at it, being the ace of the staff, you are setting an example not just with what you are doing on the field but also taking a more vocal role, which I feel like I'm trying to continue to get the feel for that.
"Yeah, that's pretty much what I want. I want to be that leader of the pitching staff, taking the ball in the first game, kind of setting the tone. But at the same time, I want to maintain that thought that I'm not the only ace on the team. I've got four more right behind me."