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.
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