When he was told Rangers manager Chris Woodward indicated he was glad Texas didn’t have to face him, White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito appreciated how much everything has shifted in a year.
“It feels pretty cool,” Giolito said. “Last year, I’m sure 29 of 30 teams would’ve loved to have me for a series. It’s a little bit different now. It’s cool to see recognition from peers and other managers and things like that when it comes to the personal success I guess I’ve experienced this year. That’s a good feeling.”
With just about a month left in the season, Giolito is in contention for other recognition.
Entering his start Tuesday against the Twins, Giolito is showing his downturn after the All-Star break was just a brief lull. Over his last five starts, he’s 3-1 with a 2.12 ERA and is primed for a strong finish to his breakout season.
Who knows, maybe it could even lead to more than a few votes for the Cy Young award. And considering where he was a year ago, Giolito appreciates that he’s even in the conversation.
“It’s really cool,” Giolito said. “I didn’t really, I definitely wasn’t thinking about that going into the year. The biggest focus was making the changes I needed to make and just being a more consistent pitcher. I’ve shown I can do that and more. That’s all I concern myself with.”
Through Sunday, Giolito was in the American League’s top 10 in a host of categories. That includes, but isn’t limited to, sixth in the AL with a 3.20 ERA, sixth in WHIP at 1.095, fifth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.512), fourth in Fielding Independent Pitching (3.20), and tied for the lead with three complete games.
But burnishing his award resume isn’t Giolito’s focus.
“I just want to take the ball every five days and win,” Giolito said. “So, I know that if I’m doing that then I’m going to put myself in a good position when it comes to numbers and everything. But yeah, I’m not like actively trying to go out and win a Cy Young award. I think that that’s something that comes as a by-product of really good focused work.”
At 14-6, Giolito also has a shot to win 20 games. However, his view of pitcher wins is a contemporary one, that they are a team stat.
“It’s a group effort, but the way we’ve been swinging the bats, the way we’ve been playing it’s very possible,” Giolito said. “I just need to go out there and make sure that I’m throwing shut-down innings after we score, the defense continuing to be solid behind me. We’ll see what can happen.”
Regardless of how high he finishes in the Cy Young race or if he approaches 20 wins, Giolito has shown he can shut down baseball’s top lineups. On May 23, he handed Houston a four-hit shutout, and last Wednesday he blanked the Twins on just three hits.
That start against Minnesota, Giolito said, was the best he’d ever felt pitching and that he was in control the entire game. He challenged himself to see how much he could focus on each individual pitch, and apparently measured up.
“I said, ‘if I throw 100 pitches today, I want to be 100 percent focused on 100 out of 100,’” Giolito said.” I ended up throwing 115 and I can say that I was focused on all of them or like almost all of them. It was just one of those days where the focus was there, the execution was there. I felt really good.”
