Giolito can't come through in his 7th inning

White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito nearly pulled off an impeccable bounce-back outing on Tuesday night that followed the shortest start of his career where he allowed eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits in one-plus innings.

In this one, Giolito pitched six innings of one-run ball, struck out seven and walked none before an ill-fated seventh inning rolled along against the Tigers, who pushed across three runs -- two on a go-ahead homer by Niko Goodrum -- in a 5-2 win at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“It was definitely better than [the Boston outing on April 19],” Giolito said. “But I’m not happy with it.”

Detroit got on the board first when Miguel Cabrera hit a solo homer off Giolito. But when Giolito recovered and finished the first inning with no other damage, the White Sox capitalized on two errors from third baseman Jeimer Candelario to score their only runs in the game.

The White Sox couldn’t benefit from three other Tigers errors and went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and no extra-base hits in the game. The hot-and-cold offense that has been an issue for Chicago in the first month of the season struck cold to snap the club’s four-game win streak.

“When you look at that game, the number of their defensive problems they had and opportunities we had, our position players supported Lucas,” manager Tony La Russa said. “[They] were excellent with defense, but they’re frustrated that they didn’t do more with the opportunities they had. We miss on them and you get haunted, and you give them a chance to come back and they did.”

The inability to score a run after the third did not weigh on Giolito’s outing until the seventh inning. At one point, he retired eight consecutive batters as the strikeouts piled up.

Giolito looked like he still had another inning in him, especially after he walked back to the dugout cheering after he struck out Jonathan Schoop on an 81.5 mph changeup with runners on the corners in the sixth.

The seventh inning spelled trouble when Willi Castro led off with an eight-pitch walk that upped Giolito’s pitch count near 100. By then, Giolito said he didn’t have much left in the tank.

“If it’s my job to go out there and get outs, I gotta get them. It’s on me. I gotta make better pitches,” Giolito said. “The seventh was my inning. I have to get the job done, I didn’t.”

Akil Baddoo’s nine-pitch at-bat resulted in a weak flyout to Adam Eaton in right field, but opened the door for Wilson Ramos to double in Castro from first as Giolito’s velocity waned in his 107th pitch at 92 mph, per Statcast.

Giolito faced three more batters after Ramos’ RBI double in an attempt to get the third out of the inning. Goodrum was among the last three batters Giolito faced in the outing and his two-run go-ahead homer was the last pair of runs charged to the right-hander, who threw a total of 114 pitches in the game.

“I was confident he’d get the third out. When Ramos came up to bat and after that, I was confident he’d get the last out and the score would be 2-2. It was his inning,” La Russa said. “That’s my fault for not recognizing [he was tired] because I looked at it, ‘He walked the leadoff guy and gets two outs.’ At that point, I gotta say I was confident he’d get the third out.”

Entering the game, White Sox starting pitchers ranked first in the American League with a 3.09 ERA. Following Tuesday’s loss, the rotation has allowed four or more runs in three of its 22 games -- two by Giolito. He’s allowed 11 earned runs in his last two starts.