Giolito dazzles, Abreu slugs White Sox past A’s in opener
OAKLAND, Calif. — Lucas Giolito released a brief yell of delight and marched quickly back to the dugout, his work day going just brilliantly for the Chicago White Sox.
Giolito simply dazzled in his postseason debut, stymieing the Oakland Athletics through six perfect innings and sending the White Sox to a 4-1 victory in the opener of their best-ofthree wild-card series Tuesday.
“Unreal. Unreal to watch. Unreal to be behind him,” shortstop Tim Anderson said. “He put the work in. When you set yourself apart to put the work in and want to be a superstar, you want to be that dominant. The work is showing. Happy for him and hopefully he can keep it up and continue to grow as a player and as a person. He’s our guy. I expect nothing but that from him.”
It also brought back memories of Giolito’s no-hitter against Pittsburgh on Aug. 25.
“It was a different feel though because throwing a perfect game, no-hitter is a great personal accomplishment, but we’re in the playoffs, the goal is to win the game,” Giolito said. “For me it was all about I’m going to give the team the best possible chance to come out on top after nine innings.”
On Tuesday, he didn’t allow a baserunner to the AL West champions until Tommy La Stella’s single up the middle to start the seventh. Giolito gave up one run on two hits over seven innings, struck out eight and walked one before giving way to Evan Marshall after a stellar 100-pitch outing.
“Pretty cool,” manager Rick Renteria said. “It was neat to see.”
Giolito got plenty of support: José Abreu hit a two-run homer and Adam Engel also connected for Chicago. Yasmani Grandal homered in the eighth.
Alex Colome, Chicago’s third reliever, worked the ninth for a save to close out the 2-hour, 53-minute game.
Before the single by La Stella, Jake Lamb’s line drive to center in the fifth was the hardest-hit ball against Giolito by the powerful A’s, whose offense struggled down the stretch.
Now, Oakland must win Game 2 on Wednesday at home to avoid another early playoff exit.
The A’s are in the postseason for a third straight year. They lost in the AL wild card game each of the past two seasons after 97 wins both times.
Oakland advanced just once during 11 previous playoff trips since 2000, reaching the 2006 AL Championship Series before being swept by Detroit.
Snell sharp, Margot HR, Rays beat Blue Jays 3-1 in opener
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Beyond ace lefty Blake Snell, the small-market Tampa Bay Rays are light on household names.
On the postseason stage, the American League’s No. 1 seed showed just where all that dominance is coming from.
“Tonight was a pretty good representation of the Tampa Bay Rays — our players, how we go about winning games,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We found success being really good in tight games. Pitching, the defense, and timely hits are the reasons for it.”
With Snell taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning, shortstop Willy Adames making splashy defensive plays and Manuel Margot delivering a two-run homer, the AL East champions opened the playoffs Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Rays will try to advance in the best-of-three wild-card matchup Game 2 at Tropicana Field, where seats will be empty with the exceptions family and friends from both teams.
“I think the biggest thing is not to press, not to really panic. That’s probably the worst thing we can do as a team,” Blue Jays third baseman Cavan Biggio said.
“It’s a bigger stage right now and not a lot of our guys have really played in the playoffs before,” the son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio added, “but I think we learned from this one today.”
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 27-year-old lefty retired the next two batters, but Cash didn’t give him a chance to finish the inning.
Diego Castillo, Nick Anderson and Pete Fairbanks followed the starter, limiting the Blue Jays to two singles, two doubles and Bo Bichette’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly the rest of the way.