PEORIA, Ariz. -- Pedro Grifol understands how dominant Lucas Giolito can be on the mound, as the White Sox manager witnessed the right-hander’s excellence many times from the other side of the field when he was with the Royals.

So after a rough 2022 campaign for Giolito -- which followed three straight seasons in which Giolito was one of the best starters in the American League -- Grifol reminded Giolito of how good he could and should be.

• Colas hits his first homer of the spring

“My message to him was you’ve been great before, and you are going to be great again,” Grifol said of the Spring Training chat. “Don’t let a period of adversity take the competitiveness and the presence that you have and have had, take that away and give an edge to the other team.

“I’ve seen it from the other side. You toe the rubber. You got your presence. You are laser focused. You are going through a little adversity, and you kind of drop your shoulders a little bit. Now everybody is smelling blood: We got this guy. And sometimes people in general don’t hide how they are feeling.”

Giolito came into camp weighing 35 pounds less than Spring Training ’22 and spoke Friday how he’s been able to adjust a little quicker at the lighter weight. He feels good on the mound and is primed for a regular-season bounce-back.

“That’s why we spoke,” Grifol said. “When you are not feeling good, you got to stand in there and tell yourself and remind yourself how good you are. So it’s not always going to be perfect. You are not always going to be toeing the rubber and saying, ‘I got my stuff, I got four pitches. It's a clear day, it’s a beautiful day.’

“No, it’s going to be hot. It’s going to be a bad day. It might be rainy. You don’t feel your second and third pitch. You only got two pitches. What are you going to do? Are you going to say, ‘Get me out of here: I can’t pitch today because it’s raining,’ or, ‘I’m not feeling the baseball that way?’

“You got to adapt. You pitch once every five days. Every single one of those guys in there have the capabilities of adapting and navigating through a game without their best stuff.”

Clevinger makes Cactus League debut 
After previously pitching in a “B” game against the Dodgers, Mike Clevinger struck out four over 2 2/3 innings Saturday afternoon during his White Sox Cactus League debut, a 6-5 loss to the Padres, his former team.

“It was good,” Clevinger said. “That was actually kind of comforting for my first time out back on the mound, to have some guys that I went to war with that have been supporting me. It was good to see their faces and get them in the box. …

“It's finding the ebbs and flows of the game, where it's like I'm getting into good sequences, setting guys up the way I want to. But the more times you get out there, the more I'm going to get synced up with [catcher Yasmani Grandal] back there. And there was some good stuff.”

Clevinger hit 96 mph, per the scoreboard speed gun, giving an idea of what he’s capable of. The right-hander dealt with right knee discomfort in 2022.

“It's a relief to go out there and just pitch and feel like I can explode and use 100% of my capability versus feeling like I've got one leg tied behind my back, instead of one arm,” Clevinger said. “It's awesome. It's a lot more fun.”