Lucas Giolito’s rough start costs the White Sox on Friday

The Chicago White Sox saw Lucas Giolito have one of his worst starts of the season on Friday night. He is normally one of their best pitchers but he just wasn’t the same for most of the game. That was the biggest factor in them getting blown out by the Houston Astros.

Giolito’s command was off early. He gave up a two-run home run and a solo shot early which gave the Astros a 3-0 lead. Thanks to some clutch hitting from the White Sox, they were able to get it tied just a couple of innings later.

Giolito locked in from there until the sixth inning when things all fell apart. He allowed a few runs before the bases were loaded with no outs. He left the game and Matt Foster recorded two quick outs before giving up a grand slam to Michael Brantley.

Most of those runs were charged to Giolito who just didn’t have it. He normally is really good against those Astros (he has allowed a lower OPS to only a few teams) but he wasn’t good in this one. For whatever reason, the aggressiveness of the Astros got to Giolito early and often.

The Chicago White Sox needs more from Lucas Giolito down the stretch.

Has Giolito been bad this season? Absolutely not. Has he been the elite ace that we have come to know? The answer to that is also no. However, the most important question is whether or not he can get back to that level. We can only hope. He sure was great and is looking to be again.

Now it is time for the White Sox to throw that game away. Getting blown out is never fun but there are two more games here to try and get. They don’t have the momentum of the Detroit sweep anymore but they can build up some more.

Johnny Cueto is going to be on the mound for the White Sox on Saturday and he is going to face Justin Verlander. That is not favorable a matchup for the Sox but you never know with baseball. They have to go out there with the right approach and give Verlander everything he can handle.

It is unfortunate that the White Sox were unable to even be competitive late in a Giolito start. He needs to be better and he will be. As mentioned before though, scrap it and move on to the next one. This Houston team is a dragon that the White Sox need to slay.