The White Sox seemed to be catching the Cardinals at the right time — the visiting Redbirds hadn’t played since July 29 because of 18 positive coronavirus tests — but it was the Sox, with their ace right-hander on the mound, who looked rusty in a 5-1 loss in Game 1 of a doubleheader Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox lost the second game 6-3, falling to 10-11 and to 2-8 at Guaranteed Rate Field. They had three hits in each game.
Lucas Giolito helped the Cardinals get up and running by walking leadoff hitter Kolten Wong to start the game, allowing a single to No. 2 hitter Tommy Edman and then hitting Tyler O’Neill and Matt Carpenter with one out. A two-run single by Dexter Fowler and RBI single by Andrew Knizner made it 4-0, a tidy lead especially for a seven-inning game.
“I need to be better in the first,” Giolito said. “I can’t put us in a hole there.”
Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright retired the Sox in order in the first, and gave up one run in five innings or work, that one conceded on Yoan Moncada’s RBI groundout in the third with the infield back scoring Danny Mendick (double).
The Sox had three hits in the game.
“Tipping your cap to a guy that was probably commanding better than anybody thought he was going to with the layoff,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “He’s still Adam Wainwright.”
And who are the Sox? They’re a 10-10 team at the one-third mark of an abbreviated 60-game season.
And they were the team that looked like the one that hadn’t played in weeks. Offensively, pitching-wise and defensively, especially in the fourth when the Cardinals added a run without hitting the ball out of the infield. Giolito couldn’t get a handle on a tapper near the mound by Fowler, walked ninth-place hitter Harrison Bader and watched Fowler score when first baseman Jose Abreu couldn’t transfer the ball from his glove to his hand on what should have been a routine to flip to Giolito covering first.
By that time, Giolito (4.88 ERA) was finding a better rhythm but he needed 34 pitches to get out of the first inning, when the Cardinals batted around the lineup. Giolito needed Abreu to throw Fowler out at home after Bader beat Tim Anderson’s throw to first for an infield single. Giolito threw 98 innings to finish five innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits, two walks and two hit batters. He struck out five.
It was only Monday when veteran left-hander Dallas Keuchel called out his teammates for going through the motions after a loss to the Tigers. Credit Wainwright and his sharp curveball if you will, but the Sox — who seemed to respond to Keuchel’s speech — looked like another was in order.
“Absolutely,” Giolito said when asked if Keucel’s words were necessary. “The way we were playing over three, four game stretch wasn’t the type of baseball we can play. So I thought it was a great message and it was received pretty well through the team. Obviously we came out and ended up winning that series.
“Unfortunate I didn’t continue that today. I’ll take the ball again next outing and make some adjustments.”
Wainwright went five innings, allowing only two hits. Giovanny Gallegos struck out Moncada, Yasmani Grandal and Abreu in order in the sixth and John Gant worked a scoreless seventh, allowing a double to Luis Robert.
The Cardinals, who have had 18 positive coronavirus tests among players (10) and staffers (eight), drove from St. Louis to Chicago on Friday.
The Cardinals, who has spent more than two weeks in isolation before driving to Chicago, most of them in separate cars, are 4-3.
