2019-20 version of Lucas Giolito appears at right time for White Sox

Lucas Giolito

The best way for the White Sox to move past all the unnecessary drama created by manager Tony La Russa over the past 24 hours was to win a baseball game Wednesday afternoon in Minnesota.

Lucas Giolito made that happen with by far his best effort of the season. The right-hander, who entered the game with an uncharacteristic 2-4 record and 4.97 ERA, dominated the Twins over a season-high eight innings in a 2-1 victory.

He struck out a season-high 11 and allowed only two hits, both to Nelson Cruz, one of which was a home run. Giolito's signature changeup is back in effect. On Wednesday, he threw it 46 times out of 111 pitches, and it led to 13 swings-and-misses by Minnesota batters.

That allowed Giolito to get away with three walks, including two leadoff walks. As the game moved along, he became more efficient with all three of his pitches -- fastball, change and slider. He had 40 pitches through two innings, which made an eight-inning performance seem improbable, but from the fourth inning through the eighth, Giolito used only 58 pitches.

Liam Hendriks, after a rough outing Tuesday, bounced back with a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn his ninth save. Hendriks needed only nine pitches to get three outs, and five of the nine were breaking balls. The Sox closer clearly made an adjustment after surrendering the game-winning hit on a fastball in his previous outing.

The elite run prevention was necessary, since the Sox only managed two runs off Minnesota starter Matt Shoemaker, who had struggled before Wednesday. 

Props to Leury Garcia, who we've criticized a lot on this blog. He was good Wednesday. In the fifth, he doubled and scored on a infield single by Adam Eaton. In the sixth, he delivered a go-ahead RBI single that scored Jake Lamb, who had doubled.

Add it all up, and the Sox finished 10-3 in this 13-game stretch against the Kansas City Royals and the Twins. Any fan should be happy with the team's overall 26-16 record.

I'll admit that I'm more pissed off than I should be. It's just an interesting time for the Sox. They are getting national respect for the play on the field. They are ranked No. 1 in almost every MLB power ranking you can find. But at the same time, they are laughingstocks and a national punching bag, because their 76-year-old manager is lecturing players about unwritten rules, while he himself doesn't know some of the written rules of baseball.

Only the White Sox. But we can hope this team is good enough to drown out the noise and continue to win. Giolito's performance was a good first step in that direction.