Giolito's gem ends shy of no-no as White Sox top NY

NEW YORK -- At 100 pitches through six innings and with a no-hitter in hand at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, White Sox starter Lucas Giolito pushed for a few more pitches to complete what he had started.

Well, more than a few.

It would have taken somewhere around 160 pitches by manager Pedro Grifol’s postgame estimation, which clearly wasn’t happening. Giolito gave way to the bullpen, which lost the no-hitter but finished a 3-2 victory over the Yankees for the White Sox season-high fourth straight win.

Giolito -- who struck out 13 and missed a perfect game by one walk when he no-hit the Pirates on Aug. 25, 2020 -- struck out seven and walked three in the series opener.

“My stuff felt really good,” said Giolito after improving to 5-4 and lowering his ERA to 3.75. “Fastball felt very lively. Too many balls. I was getting ahead of a lot of guys but throwing a lot of balls as they were working 2-2, 3-2 counts. They had a good patient approach, which I unfortunately kind of played into a little bit. One takeaway from that is be more efficient, be more in the zone, attack the zone.”

“He was really good,” said White Sox catcher Seby Zavala, who supplied all the offense with two home runs. “Executed the game plan really well. He’s back to where he was. Just got back to what he does.”

After studying the pregame plan for the Yankees (36-26), Giolito put his full trust in Zavala. He wanted to get into his mode, not think too much and let his catcher’s expert game calling lead the way.

As for that no-hitter …

It came to an end in the seventh in an unexpected manner. After Willie Calhoun drew a two-out walk off reliever Joe Kelly, Isiah Kiner-Falefa launched a drive into left-center field that looked catchable for either left fielder Andrew Benintendi or center fielder Luis Robert Jr..

Instead, it fell just in front of Robert Jr. for a run-scoring double. Jose Trevino followed that up with a single to right, but Kelly was able to retire Jake Bauers on a groundout to shortstop Tim Anderson to strand both runners.

Robert Jr. is known for the amount of outfield ground he covers quite adeptly. There’s even a bobblehead depicting Robert Jr. cutting in front of Eloy Jiménez to make a catch. It just didn’t happen on this occasion, as he explained.

“I checked on Andrew and I saw he was charging fast to the ball, and I didn’t check again on him,” said Robert Jr. through interpreter Billy Russo. “I thought he would get the ball. I didn’t check on him the second time.”

“Obviously something did happen as far as communication is concerned, because he’s so good at just going to get everything,” Grifol said. “That’s what we want him to do. Go get everything. He’s so good at going almost gap to gap. Maybe he heard Benny coming in, I’m not sure. We’ll talk about it.”

Giolito became the second White Sox starter to work six-plus hitless innings on the road against the Yankees, joining Melido Perez (July 12, 1990), and he became the first White Sox starter to record multiple starts of six-plus hitless frames in a single season, also doing so on April 18 in Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Phillies.

Liam Hendriks picked up his first save since beating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, despite allowing Josh Donaldson’s first-pitch homer in the ninth. It came two days after his first win Sunday on National Cancer Survivors Day.

“Yeah, it almost helps me when the stadium gets that loud,” said Hendriks of the leadoff homer. “I tend to get a little bit better after that. That helped me lock in a little bit more than I had initially.”

The White Sox (27-35) improved to 4-0 in June and moved to within 4 1/2 games of the Twins in the American League Central, with Minnesota dropping to one over .500 after losing to the Rays. It was an almost historic start to a tough stretch of games for the South Siders.

“We are showing a little more grit,” Hendriks said. “We are starting to put together really good at-bats, we are getting those big plays in the outfield, we are getting those big plays on the mound, and it’s all starting to click. That should be a scary thing for the rest of the division.”