Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Giolito dazzles as Sox slug A’s
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-of-three 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 American League 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: Jose Abreu hit a two-run home run 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.
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 today at home to avoid another early playoff exit.
The A’s are in the postseason for a third consecutive 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.
“We have no choice tomorrow. That’s the way we’ve been here for a while now. We wanted a series. We lost the first game of it. Now it’s time for us to respond tomorrow,” Manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re going to have to do more offensively. We can’t score one run and think that we’re going to win tomorrow and put that much pressure on the starter.”
Ramon Laureano’s groundout in the eighth scored Oakland’s lone run.
Engel crushed an 0-2 fastball for a 1-0 lead in the second, and Abreu homered in the third against 22-year-old lefty Jesus Luzardo.
Chicago had put runners on first and third in the initial inning after Abreu’s two-out single, but Luzardo struck out James McCann (Arkansas Razorbacks) to get out of it.
Engel’s fourth-inning double chased Luzardo, who took the loss.
“They capitalized on those two mistakes,” Luzardo said. “I feel like my pitching was pretty good other than that.”
Chicago has thrived against lefty starters, going 14-0 during the regular season when facing a southpaw.
That prompted Anderson to say of Luzardo getting the ball in Game 1, “I guess they haven’t done their homework.” After the game, Anderson said, “We know what we do to lefties.”
Chicago was eager for a fresh start in the playoffs after losing seven of eight at the end of the regular season, two on walk-offs.
The White Sox snapped a string of seven consecutive losing seasons to reach the postseason for the first time since 2008, when they won the AL Central and lost to Tampa Bay 3-1 in the Division Series.
“This is something we’ve been waiting for for a while now,” Engel said.
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 beat Minnesota to stretch the Twins’ all-time 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.
Michael Brantley tacked on a two-run single in the ninth after Sergio Romo issued a full-count walk to 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 start the inning and then the crippling two-out error, when Polanco’s throw to second base after a straight-at-him grounder was low to blow the forceout.
Minnesota and Houston tied for the fewest errors in the majors with 20 during the pandemic-shortened 60-game 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 consecutive times to the Yankees after that, including a threegame sweep in the AL division series last year. The Twins have failed to advance in eight consecutive 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 consecutive in the NHL playoffs from 1975-79.
RAYS 3, BLUE JAYS 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the top-seeded Tampa Bay Rays opened the playoffs Tuesday with a victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Manuel Margot hit a two-run home run, 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 bestof-three wild-card matchup.
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed 1 hit and struck out 9 — tying a club postseason record — in 52/3 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.
Toronto reliever Robbie Ray took the loss, giving up 1 run and 1 hit in 3 innings. Margot hit his home run to left-center field off A.J. Cole to push Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0 in the seventh inning.
Fairbanks worked a scoreless ninth to became the 13th different pitcher to earn a save for the Rays this season.
YANKEES 12, INDIANS 3
CLEVELAND — Aaron Judge smashed a tone-setting, two-run home run on Shane Bieber’s fourth pitch, Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and the New York Yankees opened with a resounding victory over the Cleveland Indians.
The Yankees made quite a statement in teeing off on Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher in the condensed regular season but looked average in his playoff 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-yearold ace, who gave up season highs in runs (seven) and hits (nine) over 42/3 innings — his shortest stint since June 9 last season against the Yankees.
When Bieber’s final pitch clanged loudly off the empty left-field bleachers on a two-run 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.
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.