Late rally lifts Blue Jays over White Sox

Wednesday marked the anniversary of Lucas Giolito's no-hitter against the Pirates last season.

It also was the night of the White Sox right-hander's start against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

"That wasn't on my mind," Giolito said. "It was much more like, the series is tied 1-1, I wanted to go out there, give my best performance, give us a chance to win this game. The no-hitter was one of the highlights of my career, but it wasn't on my mind today."

Giolito wasn't able to match last season's gem against Pittsburgh while facing a much tougher Jays lineup, but he did do his part while allowing 1 run on 5 hits over 6 innings.

Toronto starter Robbie Ray gave up only 1 run in 7 innings while piling up 14 strikeouts, and the Jays scored 2 runs (1 earned) in the eighth after reliever Aaron Bummer struck out the first two hitters he faced, winning 3-1.

"I knew that Robbie was going to bring some noise tonight," Giolito said. "He's been great all year, I think he's leading the American League in strikeouts now. So I just had to make sure that I stayed focused, went out there and put up as many zeros as possible. And it ended up being a pretty good pitcher's duel there for the first six, seven innings."

In addition to striking out 16 times in the game, the White Sox had only 6 hits and another tough night scoring runs.

"He's pretty close to perfected that slider," Sox manager Tony La Russa said of Ray. "Just comes at you in the strike zone and takes a bite toward the third-base line. Our game plan was to take it if we could recognize it, and that's easier said than done."

Yoan Moncada had the White Sox's lone RBI, and single in the third inning.

The Sox still hold a commanding lead in the AL Central, but they are 19-20 since the all-star break.

"I'm not too concerned with where we're at right now," Giolito said. "I think it's just some guys, offensively, just not getting those big hits in certain situations, not being able to string things together. But I think that our approach is very solid. Tonight we lost, but it was a game we were in the whole time.

"Just kind of how it's going, but I think that guys are working through stuff, we have a lot of confidence, always, no matter what. A lot of confidence in each other and we're able to pick each other up. We'll start to get hot again and play some really, really solid baseball leading up to the playoffs."