Lucas Giolito out for rest of season with lat strain

September baseball has been painful to watch for White Sox fans, and it looks as though the final couple of weeks are going to be even more nauseating.

Lucas Giolito's season is done. He has been shut down with what the team termed a mild lat strain. There are no long-term concerns associated with this injury, but the Sox's best pitcher will not make his final three starts of the season.

Ross Detwiler was starting in Giolito's place Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins. What could go wrong?

However, this injury does not diminish the fine season Giolito had. He finishes 14-9 with a 3.41 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 176.2 innings. Last season, he struck out only 125 in 173.1 innings, when he went 10-13 with a 6.13 ERA. Add in the fact that Giolito cut his walks from 90 to 57 in a similar number of innings, and you have to say this is one of the better one-season improvements we've ever seen from a Sox player.

Giolito is tied for first in the American League in complete games (3) and shutouts (2). He's tied for fourth in strikeouts (228), fourth in WHIP (1.06), fifth in bWAR (5.9), sixth in ERA (3.41), sixth in FIP (3.44), seventh in ERA+ (135) and seventh in wins (14) on an absolute garbage team.

Obviously, Giolito got the velocity back on his fastball with his new mechanics and shorter arm swing this season. He was consistently between 94 and 96 mph with his heat, and he could touch 97 at times. During 2018, I didn't see too many fastballs above 92 or 93.

He also learned to command his changeup, and it became a lethal weapon against left-handed hitters. The 2018 version of Giolito didn't have an offspeed pitch he could reliably throw for strikes, let along a swing-and-miss pitch like his changeup became.

The games in which Giolito could throw his slider for strikes in any count, those were the games he dominated. He isn't quite consistent with that breaking ball yet, and I think that's the final frontier for him in his development as a pitcher.

If he can refine his breaking pitch to the point where it's working more nights than not, he can be a perennial All-Star with the fastball and changeup he possesses. It will be interesting to see what he can do for an encore in 2020.