The Giolito Masterpiece

 

I tuned into the Pirates game with the White Sox last night along about the third inning.  After the fourth inning I noted that while the Bucs were down 4-0, they had also yet to record a hit and that Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito had already struck out an inordinate amount of batters and had an inordinately low pitch count.

There  are few things in all of sports that can match the tension that builds up over the course of nine innings when a pitcher flirts with a no-hitter.  Hmmm, I thought, this could be interesting.  

And indeed it was.  Inning after inning, Giolito continued to mow down the Pirates hitters, and the tension began to build that something very special could happen in this game.  It was definitely NOT going to be a "Bob Gets To Bed Early Night."  After Sox shortstop Tim Anderson made a very nifty play in the seventh inning to nail Brian Reynolds in a bang-bang play at first (which replay showed was not actually all that close anyway), it seemed inevitable that Giolito was going to get his no-hitter.  The only doubt came on the 27th out when Eric Gonzalez hit a sinking, slicing opposite field liner only to see the Sox right fielder make another nifty play to save the no-hitter.  

Giolito's line was as follows:

9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 13 K, 101 Pitches

It was as dominating a pitching performance as you will ever see, and I'm glad that I was able to see it.

Some other thoughts:

• There is a hallowed tradition in baseball that you never mention it when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter.  Well, Pirate Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and his assistant John Wehner wouldn't stop yapping about the possibility of it from the fifth inning on.  That is as it should be as they are, ostensibly, reporters after all, but if it was reversed, and a Pirate was throwing the no-hitter, all Brownie would have been saying would have been things like "something special going on here" or "the Sox only baserunner thus far came on a walk."  I've heard them do it many times over the years.
• In all fairness, though, Brownie and Wehner were effusive in their praise of Giolito throughout.  And on the radio post game, Bob Walk was positively giddy in describing Giolito's performance in a way that surely only a former pitcher can be.
• Some are diminishing this as "well, it was only against the Pirates", and that, pardon me, doesn't wash.  If it was that simple, then why isn't everyone throwing a no-hitter against the Pirates every night?
• That said, I saw this quote from Giolito in the Washington Post this  morning: "When I saw who was due to come up in the eighth and ninth, I knew I had a real shot at it."  I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but, wow, THAT was a shot.
• I had to wonder if baseball's hallowed and much-in-the-news lately "Unwritten Rules" would have come into play had the Pirates, trailing by four runs, sent up a raft of pinch hitters in the bottom of the ninth. Would Sheltie and the Pirates have been accused of "not respecting the game"?  As it turned out, Shelton did send Jose Osuna up as a pinch hitter in place of John Ryan Murphy in the ninth, and he struck out just as feebly as twelve other Pirates before him, so the debate is moot.  I wonder though, if there would have been howling across the MLB landscape had Osuna managed to get a hit there.

There are no guarantees when you buy a ticket to a sporting event or watch one on television.  Chances are that most of the time, the event that you see will be fairly unmemorable, but every so often, you see what we all saw last night coming from Chicago.  It's why you follow sports.