How Lucas Giolito Spun Gem For Red Sox Vs. Orioles

After a bullpen game on Monday in which the Boston Red Sox used five pitchers to beat the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox were in need of a lengthy start from Lucas Giolito. The righty delivered, firing eight innings of shutout baseball.

Giolito’s command was impeccable. He filled up the zone with his fastball for a 70% strike rate. He also hit the inside edge against left-handed hitters with his four-seam consistently. His changeup returned 18% swinging strikes as it stayed low and on the arm side, while his slider was on the glove side for a 14% swinging strike rate.

“[Fastball command] was a focus all week,” Giolito said. “Getting the fastball, working it up in the zone, getting it into the lefties again, I’ve been kind of straying away from that. We were able to do that for the most part. When I did miss, we were able to throw good pitches off of that. Credit to [Carlos Narvaez] for keeping his ear to the ground and knowing what’s up.”

He was efficient, as well. He recorded five one-pitch outs. He got through the first three innings with just 30 pitches, using almost exclusively his fastball to do so. It allowed him to feature other offerings in his second and third trips, keeping hitters at bay.

With the lead at two in the sixth inning, Giolito ran into some trouble. The Red Sox got Justin Wilson warming, but Giolito escaped the jam. With his pitch count still below 80, he was able to go back out for the seventh inning and retired the side on four pitches.

In the eighth, the Red Sox starter recorded two quick outs before walking Jackson Holliday on four pitches. Jeremiah Jackson fouled off five straight pitches in a full count before Giolito pulled the string with a changeup, catching Jackson off balance and punctuating his outing with strikeout number eight.

“[Jackson] kept fouling off heaters,” Giolito laughed. “I wasn’t confident I could execute a slider there, well. It had been kinda spinning out on me the last couple of innings, so I was like, let me just go to the bread and butter and try and throw a good changeup down in the zone, and we were able to do that.”

The Red Sox rotation was in flux with the demotion of Walker Buehler to the bullpen. Richard Fitts was a candidate to take the fifth spot in the rotation, but he went on the injured list following his outing on Monday. Giolito helped steady the ship with Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet scheduled to start behind him.

“Excellent. Excellent. Fastball command was on point. The offspeed stuff was great, under control,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We were a reliever short in the bullpen, and he gave us more than enough.”