Giolito’s gem first no-hitter of 2020

CHICAGO — Lucas Giolito quietly walked to the mound for the ninth inning, piped-in fake crowd noise wafting through the ballpark and cardboard cutouts dotting the stands.

Moments later, the Chicago White Sox righthander threw the final pitch in a truly bizarre performance.

A no-fan no-no. With the seats at Guaranteed Rate Field empty, Giolito pitched the first no-hitter of the pandemic-delayed season, striking out 13 batters while leading the White Sox over the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 late Tuesday night.

“2020 has been a very strange year,” said Giolito, who conducted a postgame interview while wearing a mask. “Obviously a lot of weird stuff going on with COVID and the state of the world, so may as well throw this in the mix.”

Sounds like he didn’t mind that nobody saw it. Well, almost no one.

After right fielder Adam Engel extended on the run to catch Erik Gonzalez’s slicing drive toward the line for the final out, the hollers of Giolito’s teammates in the middle of the diamond echoed around the stadium.

“I’m just stoked for Lucas and so happy and ecstatic and emotional for Lucas,” Engel said. “It stinks we couldn’t celebrate the way most no-hitters get celebrated.”

The smallest crowd listed for any no-hitter in the majors over the past 100 years was in 1944, when a mere 1,014 watched Cincinnati’s Clyde Shoun stymie the Boston Braves at the Reds’ Crosley Field. It was nowhere close to that number on this night, not with the park that holds more than 40,000 closed to fans because of virus protocols.

Suffice to say, years from now when White Sox fans fondly remember Giolito’s 101-pitch gem, there will not be, say, 100,000 or so people claiming they were there to see it in person.

At one point early in the game, some members of the grounds crew drifted in sight, but that was about it outside of the teams.

An All-Star last year, the 26-year-old Giolito (3-2) matched his career high for strikeouts set in his previous start against Detroit. Only a four-pitch walk to Gonzalez leading off the fourth inning got in Giolito’s way of perfection.

The White Sox rushed toward the mound after the final out in the first no-hitter of Giolito’s MLB career and the 19th in franchise history, second only to the 23 for the Dodgers. It was the first no-hitter thrown by the White Sox since Philip Humber tossed a perfect game against the host Seattle Mariners in 2012.