White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito records 200th strikeout of the season

It's remarkable that right-hander Lucas Giolito has 14 wins in 26 starts this season, pitching for yet another terrible White Sox team.

Giolito's record dropped to 14-7 with a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night, but very little of the blame for this defeat falls on him.

Sure, Giolito failed to duplicate the three-hit shutout he tossed against the Twins on Aug. 21 in Minneapolis, but his line in this latest start was still quite good. He went six innings, allowing two earned runs on only four hits. He struck out nine and walked three.

Giolito did give up two home runs in the second inning, one on a high fastball to Marwin Gonzalez and the other on a hanging slider to Jonathan Schoop. However, two runs allowed over six innings is good enough to win a lot of nights -- just not this night.

The Sox offense managed six hits -- five of them singles -- against Minnesota starter Michael Pineda (10-5) and four Twins relievers. A solo home run by Tim Anderson, his 14th of the season, provided the only run the Sox could muster.

So, Giolito suffered the loss despite pitching well, but on the bright side, he added his name to a short list of Sox pitchers who have recorded 200 or more strikeouts in a season. His strikeout total for 2019 now stands at 203 after Tuesday night.

Here are the other Sox hurlers to achieve this milestone:

Ed Walsh (1907-08, 1910-12)
Gary Peters (1964, 1967)
Wilbur Wood (1971)
Tom Bradley (1972)
Alex Fernandez (1996)
Esteban Loaiza (2003)
Javier Vazquez (2007-08)
Chris Sale (2013-16)

Giolito's accomplishment is remarkable when you consider he had only 125 strikeouts last season in 173.1 innings. This season, he's at 203 strikeouts in 157.2 innings.

This is just the latest benchmark that shows Giolito is perhaps the most improved player in all of baseball in 2019. Can you think of another player in the game who has taken this big of a step forward? I can't.

Some photos from my recent trip to PNC Park in Pittsburgh

Hadn't had the chance to write about it until now, but we stopped in Pittsburgh on our way back from Cooperstown in July, and we took in a Pirates game at PNC Park on July 25.

The Cardinals beat the Pirates, 6-3, and we came away impressed with the ballpark experience there. They did it right when they built that place, and it was a good value too.

I got pretty good seats for $20 a ticket, and each ticket came with $10 "loaded" onto it for concessions. When I bought my lunch, the price was $13.50. I presented my ticket, and they took $10 off and charged me $3.50.

Good deal, huh?

We went to a game on a Thursday afternoon, but we got there the Wednesday night before. There was a night game going on, and it's awesome that you can see into the ballpark from the other side of the river.

Just for proof that I was actually there, here I am.

They have a really large statue of Willie Stargell outside one of the gates.

And, of course, the great Roberto Clemente also is honored with a statue.

Here's the view from behind home plate, with the skyline of Pittsburgh out beyond the right-field wall.

As I said, pretty good seats for $20.

One more shot that I took from my seat at the game. Nice view of the city, great sightlines, friendly people, reasonable prices ... if you have a chance to take in a game in Pittsburgh, I would recommend it.

White Sox take three out of four from Texas Rangers

Yoan Moncada

The White Sox need two victories this week to clinch a winning month, as they improved to 14-11 in August by taking three games out of four from the Texas Rangers over the weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The series featured Yoan Moncada's return to the Sox lineup -- and effective starting pitching from Sox hurlers not named Lucas Giolito, whose turn in the rotation did not come up.

The Sox (60-70) will have an off day Monday before continuing the homestand Tuesday, when they open a three-game series against the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins. But here's a look back at the Texas series:

Thursday, Aug. 22
White Sox 6, Rangers 1: Moncada rejoined the Sox and went 2 for 4 with a two-run homer and a double. The home run highlighted a four-run third inning, which also featured a solo shot by James McCann and a RBI single by Tim Anderson.

Left-hander Ross Detwiler (2-3) had his best outing as a member of the Sox, if not the best outing of his career. He struck out a career-high eight over six innings, allowing only one run on three hits. He did not walk a batter. Sox relievers Jimmy Cordero and Kelvin Herrera combined for three innings of hitless, scoreless relief.

It was a weird night for Texas starter Ariel Jurado (6-10), who tossed a complete game but also got knocked around for six runs on 10 hits.

Friday, Aug. 23
White Sox 8, Rangers 3: Will we look back on this as the night when Dylan Cease turned the corner? We can only hope. Cease (3-6) got off to a terrible start, giving up a 3-run homer to Willie Calhoun in the first inning. But the Sox rookie gave up nothing after that. He pitched six innings, striking out nine and walking only one.

The Sox got to Lance Lynn (14-9), who has been one of the better pitchers in the league -- just not on this night. Lynn surrendered seven runs on 11 hits over 5.2 innings. He did strike out 10, but he took the loss.

Moncada once again was 2 for 4 with a two-run homer and a double. Anderson, Leury Garcia and Jon Jay also had multi-hit games. Eight of the nine players in the Sox lineup had at least one hit.

The Sox bullpen, again, was spotless over three innings. Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer and Alex Colome combined for four strikeouts and no hits or walks allowed.

Saturday, Aug. 24
Rangers 4, White Sox 0: This is the Sox, so there has got to be one clunker in every bunch, right?

Sox starter Ivan Nova (9-10) cruised through five innings, but Anderson booted a grounder off the bat of Elvis Andrus with one out in the sixth, and moments later, Calhoun homered into the right-field stands to put the Rangers up 2-0. Danny Santana added a two-run homer off Cordero in the seventh, and that was that.

The Sox managed eight hits off Kolby Allard (2-0) and two Texas relievers, but seven of them were singles. Ryan Goins doubled with two outs in the ninth for the Sox's lone extra-base hit of the game.

Sox batters finished 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

Sunday, Aug. 25
White Sox 2, Rangers 0: It's too bad Reynaldo Lopez (8-11) had to leave this game after five innings with dehydration and flu-like symptoms. He allowed no hits and struck out six while tossing 80 pitches during his outing.

Fortunately, the Sox bullpen covered four innings and finished off a one-hitter. Bummer, Marshall, Jace Fry and Colome each worked a scoreless inning, with Colome earning his 25th save in 26 chances.

Jose Abreu reached 100 RBIs for the fifth time in his six seasons with the Sox. He knocked in both Chicago runs, one with an RBI single in the third, and the other on a fielder's choice in the seventh.

Sox batters couldn't do much with Texas rookie left-hander Brock Burke (0-1), who allowed only one run over six innings. But much like Nova on Saturday night, Burke forgot to throw a shutout and ended up getting beat.

White Sox reinstate Yoan Moncada from injured list

White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada was reinstated from the injured list Thursday before the South Siders opened a four-game weekend series with the Texas Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Moncada, who has been on the injured list since Aug. 1 with a strained right hamstring, played five rehab games with Triple-A Charlotte. He went 9 for 22 with two home runs, a double, six runs scored and six RBIs.

Based on those numbers, there's no reason to think he isn't ready. Hopefully, the Sox lineup won't look so anemic now, because Moncada has been the best position player on the team this season.

He's hitting .301/.358/.535 with 20 home runs, 59 RBIs, 21 doubles, three triples, 58 runs scored and seven stolen bases in 97 games. What are the odds he finishes the season with a .300-plus batting average? Not sure, but the fact that he has a chance to do that is amazing given the struggles we saw from him in 2018.

To make room on the roster for Moncada, the Sox optioned outfielder Ryan Cordell to Triple-A Charlotte.

Cordell is hitting .227/.284/.356 this season with six home runs, seven doubles and 20 RBIs in 81 games. I feel as though I've seen enough of Cordell to confidently say he is not a major-league player moving forward, but somehow, I sense that we'll see him back on the South Side when rosters expand in September.

It would be nice if Moncada had brought Luis Robert along with him from Charlotte, but that's not how the Sox roll. We're likely to see more of guys such as Cordell, Daniel Palka and Dylan Covey down the stretch.

It was a bad day for the 'Lucas Giolito can't beat good teams' crowd

The Minnesota Twins had scored 84 runs in their first 12 games against the Sox this season -- that's an average of almost 7.5 per game -- so shutting them out is quite a feat.

Lucas Giolito was the man to do it Wednesday, as he turned in one of his best performances of the season. He improved to 14-6 with a complete-game, three-hit shutout as the Sox beat the Twins, 4-0, to secure a series win.

Giolito struck out 12 and walked nobody, and his performance came the afternoon after the Sox got crunched, 14-4, by Minnesota on Tuesday night.

It was Giolito's third complete game and second shutout of the season, and both shutouts have come against division-leading teams (Houston and Minnesota). It's odd that I still see comments on social media claiming that Giolito "can't beat good teams."

I'm pretty sure that stems from two of Giolito's six losses being against the Cubs, but if you look at his numbers carefully, you'll see that both of his starts against the North Siders just happened to occur during his roughest stretch of the season -- a period during which he was bad against almost everybody.

Let's take a look at Giolito's numbers:

Before June 15: 10-1, 2.22 ERA in 13 starts
From June 15 to July 25: 1-4, 6.38 ERA in 7 starts (including two vs. the Cubs)
Since July 25: 3-1, 2.12 ERA in 5 starts

Yes, Giolito had a cold streak, but now he's hot again. He's struck out 11 or more men in each of his past three starts, totaling 36 strikeouts against only four walks over 21 innings.

Who have those starts come against? Oakland, the L.A. Angels and Minnesota. The A's and Twins would be playoff teams if the season ended today. The Angels were three games below .500 entering Wednesday's play, so they are neither great nor terrible, but they do have the best player on the planet in Mike Trout.

So, I would say Giolito is good against everybody right now. He's not just bum-slaying. He's got two wins over the Yankees, two wins over the Twins and a win over the Astros this season.

He's good, and I'm optimistic that this breakout is for real. The Sox are 16-9 when Giolito pitches, and this is a team that is 57-69 overall. What does that tell you?

Trivia time at the National Baseball Hall of Fame

So, I might have mentioned in a previous post that I played a trivia game at the Hall of Fame.

Here's how it worked: There was an auditorium of people at the Hall in Cooperstown, N.Y. -- the room was maybe 40 percent full -- and the first person to answer a trivia question was invited down "into the hot seat" to play the game.

The first question thrown out to the audience was, "Who was the Orioles starting pitcher the day Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak?" I correctly answered "Mike Mussina," and into the hot seat I went.

I was asked to pick a partner, and my girlfriend, Jen, did not want to play. So I asked for a volunteer, and fortunately, a Dodgers fan who really knew his stuff said he would join me.

The game consisted of nine "innings," each featuring one multiple choice question. As the innings progress, the question get increasingly difficult.

The question you see in the picture is the "first inning," and as you can see, that one was a layup. We answered easily. It obviously got more difficult. The toughest question I answered was, "Name the only player in baseball history to go 7 for 7 in a nine-inning game."

The answer is Rennie Stennett, but it was tricky, because the other choices were great players, such as Wade Boggs. You may think a player such as Boggs would have had seven hits in a game at one point, but he did not. Stennett did Sept. 16, 1975, against the Cubs, despite his modest .274 career batting average and .665 career OPS.

At any rate, this Dodgers fan and I advanced to the eighth inning before we got tripped up. We did not know who holds the record for most doubles in a single season. We thought it was Joe Medwick. It was Earl Webb, who had 67 doubles in 1931.

It's too bad, because we would have won had we gotten that question right. The "ninth inning" question was about the 1959 World Series, which was White Sox vs. Dodgers. Both the White Sox fan (me) and the Dodgers fan (my playing partner) knew that Larry Sherry had won two games and saved two games for Los Angeles in that six-game series.

I collected my parting gift, a program from the 2019 Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

There were two other people who got to play after me. A father-and-son combination, both of whom were Mets fans, made it through all nine innings and won the big prize -- a bat autographed by the 2019 Hall class. Had I had the same group of questions, I would have won -- I knew all nine that they correctly answered.

The third pairing was a couple of Yankees fans, and they lost in the fifth inning because they did not know that John Wathan owns the single-season record for stolen bases by a catcher.

At least they did a lot worse than me.

Ivan Nova is pitching well, but let's not get hasty here

Ivan Nova

Let's start by giving credit where credit is due. While I'm not an Ivan Nova fan, the man is pitching extremely well for the White Sox.

Over Nova's past six starts, he's 5-0 with a 0.85 ERA. He allowed only four earned runs over 42.1 innings, and he's doing more than just bum-slaying, too.

Sure, he has beaten the lowly Miami Marlins and Detroit Tigers during this stretch. But he's also beaten the AL West-leading Houston Astros and the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins -- twice.

Nova bent but did not crumble Monday night. He allowed two runs on 10 hits over 5.1 innings vs. Minnesota, but he did enough to earn the win as the Sox defeated the Twins, 6-4.

The South Siders broke a seven-game losing streak at Target Field, winning there for the first time since Aug. 20, 2018.

There's no question Nova deserves praise for a strong second half, but I'm starting to hear rumblings from some fans and media that the Sox should consider bringing him back for 2020.

Let's not get hasty here.

Nova is 9-9 with a 4.47 ERA over his 26 starts this season. Those numbers are an accurate reflection of who he is: He's a league-average starter at best; he's a back-end guy at best on a contending team. His career ERA is 4.28.

We all need to understand Nova is better than the guy who had a 6.01 ERA on June 18, yes, but he's also not as good as the guy who we've seen over the past six starts. There's a long-term track record established that tells the tale.

Is he really the "veteran presence" to fill out the 2020 rotation? Keep in mind that Nova will be entering his age-33 season. Shouldn't the Sox be aiming higher?

While Gerrit Cole is likely a pipe dream, the Sox should make a run at him. If Cole is out of reach, the market still has several pitchers better than Nova. Why not sign Zack Wheeler?

General manager Rick Hahn told Sox fans that we can "have nice things." Let's try for something "nice" before we settle for another year of mediocre Nova in the starting rotation.