DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER
Giolito flirts with perfection, stymies A’s for Chisox lead
Lucas Giolito dazzled in his postseason debut, stymieing the 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 in Oakland, Calif.
Giolito (1-0), who pitched a nohitter against Pittsburgh on Aug. 25, didn’t allow a base runner 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 two-run homer and Adam Engel also connected for Chicago against Jesus Luzardo (0-1). 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.
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, having lost in the AL wild-card game each of the past two seasons after 97 wins both times.
Rays 3, Blue Jays 1
In St. Petersburg, Fla., Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the top-seeded Rays opened the playoffs Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays.
Manuel Margot hit a two-run 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 base runners 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 staff.
Astros 4, Twins 1
In Minneapolis, Jose Altuve drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning after a two-out error by shortstop Jorge Polanco, and Houston beat Minnesota to open their AL playoff series and stretch the Twins’ alltime record postseason losing streak to 17 games.
Manager Dusty Baker’s Astros became the first team in major league history to win a game after reaching the postseason with a losing record. Game 2 in the best-of-three wildcard matchup is Wednesday at Target Field.
Michael Brantley tacked on a tworun 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.