Red Sox
Giolito held Washington to one run in Boston’s 11-2 victory in the nation’s capital on the Fourth of July.
Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito’s last five starts have been nothing short of commanding.
His latest outing, a 7 ⅔ performance in which he allowed one run and Boston won 11-2, felt extra special for the 30-year-old hurler.
On Friday, in the nation’s capital, on the Fourth of July, Giolito faced, and dominated, the team he debuted with nine years ago. He only appeared in six games for the Washington Nationals in 2016 before being traded to the Chicago White Sox the following offseason.
Giolito threw his longest game since joining the Red Sox two years ago and racked up seven strikeouts against his former club.
The right-hander spoke about his outstanding start with reporters after the game.
“Yeah, it’s been a long road. I pitched very different back then,” Giolito said of his career since his rookie season. “I think every baseball player’s career – you have your ups and downs, you have your trials and tribulations, the highs and lows, however you want to put it.
“It’s been a long road. I look forward to many more, even the downs. When you come back from those, it’s probably more satisfying than just being good all the time. I just look forward to continuing to work and for us to really get hot and start winning a lot more.”
The veteran’s long road has included undergoing elbow surgery before throwing a regular season pitch for Boston in March 2024. Giolito missed all of last season after inking a two-year, $38 million contract two-and-a-half months before experiencing elbow discomfort and ultimately going under the knife.
To make matters worse, his team debut got off to a bumpy start earlier this season. Giolito began the year on the injured list due to a hamstring strain and was activated at the end of April.
Throughout his first seven starts, he owned a 6.42 ERA, allowing 24 earned runs over 33 ⅔ innings. Batters were hitting .324 off of Giolito in those outings as he allowed six home runs and 44 hits total.
Following his start on June 4, when he recorded just five outs and gave up seven earned runs on eight hits, he owns an 0.83 ERA with 31 strikeouts over 32 ⅔ innings. In those five games since, Giolito earned four victories and has lowered his ERA from 6.42 entering June 10 to 3.66 following July 4.
“It’s been good. It’s been good, but you can’t be satisfied, ever, in this game,” Giolito said when asked by NESN’s Jahmai Webster how rewarding this stretch has been. “Because as soon as you’re satisfied, you get punched in the face. I’ve been there a million times. We just gotta keep it up, keep the same energy, win series. Just keep it going.”
Despite logging 108 pitches (75 for strikes) over 7 ⅔ innings on Friday, he still didn’t want to come out of the game and wished to finish the eighth inning, according to Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
“[Giolito] didn’t want to come out (of the game),” Cora said. “I appreciate that. … He’s a competitor. He feels like the more pitches he throws, the better it is for him.”
Unfortunately for him, Giolito’s success as of late feels unsustainable. A sub-1 ERA for any multi-game stretch is like catching lightning in a bottle for the average starter.
However, he has aided in keeping Boston afloat and in the wild card race amid its inconsistency on the diamond by providing quality starts alongside Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello in the rotation. If Giolito can get through five or six innings and average no more than a few runs per start the rest of the way, Boston’s chances of reaching the playoffs are higher, in theory.
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