Giolito, bats lift White Sox past A’s
OAKLAND, Calif. — Lucas Giolito dazzled in his postseason debut, stymieing the Oakland Athletics through six perfect innings and sending the Chicago White Sox to a 4-1 victory in the opener of their bestof-three wild-card series Tuesday.
Giolito (1-0) yelled in delight after striking out the side in the sixth, quickly walking back to the dugout with his arms to his side.
The right-hander, who pitched a no-hitter against Pittsburgh on Aug. 25, 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.
Giolito got plenty of support: José Abreu hit a tworun 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 in 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 playof f exit.
The A’s are in the postseason for a third straight year, having lost in the AL wild card game each of the past two seasons after 97 wins both times. They advanced just once during 11 previous playoff trips since 2000, reaching the 2006 AL Championship Series before being swept by Detroit.
Ramón Laureano’s groundout in the eighth scored Oakland’s lone run.
Engel crushed an 0-2 fastball for a 1-0 White Sox lead in the second before Abreu homered in the third against 22-year-old lefty Jesús Luzardo.
The White Sox put runners on first and third in the initial inning after Abreu’s two-out single but Luzardo struck out James Mccann to get out of it.
Engel’s four th-inning double chased Luzardo (0-1).
Chicago has thrived against lefty starters, going 14-0 during the regular season when facing a southpaw.
ASTROS 4, TWINS 1
MINNEAPOLIS — Jose Altuve drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the goahead run in the ninth inning for Houston after a two-out error by shortstop Jorge Polanco, and the Astros stretched the Twins’ all-time record postseason losing streak to 17 games.
Manager Dusty Baker’s Astros became the first team in major league histor y to win a game after reaching the postseason with a losing record.
Game 2 in the best-ofthree wild-card matchup is Wednesday at Target Field.
Michael Brantley tacked on a two-run single in the ninth after Sergio Romo issued a full-count walk to the 5-foot-6 Altuve, the 2017 AL MVP who had a quiet season at the plate.
Framber Valdez, who made 10 regular-season starts for the Astros, pitched five scoreless innings in relief of Zack Greinke for the victory to keep the bullpen fresh for the rest of the series. Valdez allowed his only two hits with one out in the ninth, but Willians Astudillo grounded into a double play to end the game.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli called for Romo, the fifth of six pitchers, to start the ninth. The Astros loaded the bases on two singles to star t the inning and then the crippling two-out error, when Polanco’s throw to second base after a straightat-him grounder was low to blow the forceout.
Minnesota and Houston tied for the fewest errors in the majors with 20 during the pandemic-shor tened 60game season.
Minnesota’s previous win in the playoffs was notched in New York on Oct. 5, 2004, in Game 1 of the AL division series. That was also the last scoreless postseason start for a Twins pitcher — seven shutout innings by AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana — until Kenta Maeda’s in this game.
The Twins lost 13 straight times to the Yankees after that, including a three-game sweep in the AL division series last year. The Twins have failed to advance in eight straight rounds, since beating Oakland in five games in the AL division series in 2002.
Minnesota broke the record for consecutive postseason losses in major North American sports — the Twins had been tied with the Chicago Blackhawks, who dropped 16 straight in the NHL playof fs from 1975-79.
YANKEES 12, I NDIANS 3
CLEVELAND — Aaron Judge smashed a tone-setting, two-run homer on Shane Bieber’s four th pitch, Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and New York opened the AL playoffs with a resounding win.
Just a few miles from where the Trump-biden presidential debate took place, the Yankees made quite a statement in teeing of f on Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher in the condensed regular season but looked average in his playof f debut.
Judge and the rest of New York’s hitters hadn’t faced Bieber in 2020, but they were well prepared and took some meaty cuts against the 25-year-old ace, who gave up season highs in runs (seven) and hits (nine) over 4 innings — his shor test stint since June 9 last season against the Yankees.
The best-of-three
Mseries continues Wednesday night with Carlos Carrasco trying to save Cleveland’s season against Masahiro Tanaka.
When Bieber’s final pitch clanged loudly of f the empty left-field bleachers on a tworun homer by Gleyber Torres in the fifth, the Yankees were up 7-2 and had delivered a boisterous postseason message to the rest of baseball: Don’t forget us.
Bieber then handed the ball to acting Indians man- ager Sandy Alomar Jr. and walked slowly toward Cleveland’s dugout, seemingly carrying all of the city’s hopes for a long run with him. The Indians have lost seven straight playoff games.
Staked to an early lead on Judge’s homer, Cole showed why the Yanks shelled out $324 million for him in the offseason. The right-hander gave up two runs — including Josh Naylor’s homer in the four th — and six hits in seven innings.
Naylor went 4 for 4 and became the first player with three extra-base hits in his postseason debut.
Cole’s strikeouts were the second-most by a New York pitcher in postseason history. Roger Clemens fanned 15 in Game 4 of the 2000 ALCS.
Brett Gardner added a two-run homer in the seventh for the Yankees and Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo shot in the ninth.
RAYS 3, BLUE J AYS 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and top-seeded Tampa Bay opened the playoffs with a win.
Manuel Margot hit a tworun homer and Randy Arozarena tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give Snell and a dominant Rays bullpen all the offensive support needed to begin the best-of-three wild-card matchup.
The AL East champion Rays will try to advance Wednesday in Game 2 at Tropicana Field.
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed one hit and struck out nine — tying a club postseason record — in 5 2/3 innings.
Diego Castillo, Nick Anderson and Pete Fairbanks followed Snell, limiting the Blue Jays to two singles, two doubles and Bo Bichette’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly the rest of the way.
Fairbanks closed for his first save of the season as Rays manager Kevin Cash kept taking a fresh and innovative approach to using his pitching staf f.
Toronto reliever Robbie Ray took the loss, giving up one run and one hit in three innings. Margot hit his homer to left-center field of f A.J. Cole to push Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0 in the seventh inning.
The wild-card Blue Jays broke through in the eighth against Anderson, didn’t allow a run in 18 of 19 regular season appearances.
Rowdy Tellez’s pinch-hit single gave Toronto a spark. Cavan Biggio followed with a double before Biggio delivered his sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Anderson avoided fur ther damage when shortstop Willy Adames made a nice play to snare Randal Grichuk’’s liner to end the inning.
Fairbanks worked a scoreless ninth to became the 13th different pitcher to earn a save for the Rays this season.