Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito’s 'confidence is good' following his first start in 17 months

In his first start with the Red Sox, Lucas Giolito was cruising along, pitching with a 6-0 lead heading into his sixth inning of work.

The righty hadn’t been on a Major League mound in 577 days following internal brace surgery on his right throwing elbow and then suffering a left hamstring strain during his first start in spring training.

As Giolito began to work in the sixth inning, he primarily was carving up the Blue Jays lineup with a fastball and changeup one-two punch. His fastball had topped out at 96 mph while sitting comfortably at 94 mph his entire outing.

Giolito opened his final frame and secured two quick outs, forcing Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out to third baseman Alex Bregman on an 80.6 mph changeup. He followed that up by getting switch-hitter Anthony Santander to fly out to center field at Ceddanne Rafaela after a three-pitch at-bat.

He was five pitches into the inning, and it felt like the Sox were about to get out rather quickly and turn the ball over to the bullpen with a commanding six-run lead.

Instead, the right-hander’s gas tank hit empty, walking George Springer after initially working the count in his favor to 0-2. One batter later, he had Dalton Varsho on the ropes, down in the count 0-2, but hung a changeup up and in, and the left-hander crushed the pitch to deep right field, and the Blue Jays were on the board.

Giolito still needing one out and now holding a 6-2 lead, he was ready to face the game’s eventual late-innings hero, Alejandro Kirk. The Sox’ hurler left an 82.8 mph changeup over the heart of the plate, and Kirk belted his second homer of the season. The Jays would go back-to-back making it 6-3 and they began to build momentum that would eventually catapult them to a 7-6 win in the 10th inning.

“Gotta finish stronger,” Giolito said. “Sucks to give the other team momentum like that when you’re up big.”

Overall, Giolito looked excellent considering his long layoff of the last 17 months, particularly over his first five innings of work. In the third inning, he allowed a pair of singles before shutting down the middle of the Blue Jays' order. He struck out Guerrero Jr. by painting the corner of the plate with a 96 mph fastball. With one out, he forced Santander to fly out and then struck out Springer on three straight changeups.

Before the three-run sixth, Giolito had set down 11 straight batters and looked locked in on cruise control in his first outing as a member of the Red Sox. Giolito was at 72 pitches with two outs as he worked into the sixth before walking Springer.

“I thought I pitched well until the sixth,” said Giolito. “Sixth inning, some crucial, crucial mistakes. An 0-2 walk, an 0-2 homer, another homer. We were playing the changeup pretty well to the corners, and I just left them up there. So, it’s something to learn from. Got to finish stronger. Sucks to give the other team momentum like that when you're up big.”

The way he was throwing up to that point, Cora thought his starter was efficient and didn’t think about going to the bullpen prior to the start of the sixth inning.

“Not at all,” Cora said. “He was built up to go 90, 95 pitches. And like I said a few weeks ago, we’re gonna let them go. And he did an outstanding job.”

Cora noted after the game that Giolito had a solid fastball and changeup combination. 

Giolito induced four swings-and-misses with this changeup, his best secondary pitch. He got five swings-and-misses with the fastball. That included the big swinging strikeout of Guerrero Jr. in the third inning to work out of his only jam of the night prior to late in the sixth.

“Obviously he’s upset with the way it ended, but I think if we get this version of Lucas, we’re going to be in good shape,” Cora said.

Giolito added, “The biggest takeaway from tonight is stay focused and finish strong.”

The 30-year-old allowed three runs off five hits with two walks while striking out seven in six innings on Wednesday night.

He threw 90 pitches, 61 of them for strikes, while inducing nine swings and misses. Giolito armed his arsenal with his fastball and changeup, delivering 51 pitches to the Blue Jays lineup. His changeup sat around 82.5 mph on the night, hurling 32 of them over the course of six innings.

“Confidence is good,” Giolito told reporters postgame. “I think that it’s just continuing to get into the groove, get my good routine. It’s good to be back, going on the road trips and being around the guys. Looking forward to building, and obviously the biggest takeaway from tonight is stay focused and finish strong. That’s all I really got on it.”

SILVER LINING

The loss was brutal for the Red Sox, considering they held a 6-0 lead in the middle of the game against a division rival. The back-to-back homers given up by Giolito were a sign things were about to go south over the next four innings (including the 10th).

Giolito's season debut ending in a victory would have been the ultimate reward, but Garrett Whitlock's inability to maintain the three-run lead was unfortunate and erased a strong outing from the starter.

Whitlock came into the night with a 1.72 ERA in 10 appearances and had been tremendous. In the seventh, he would serve up a game-tying, three-run blast to Santander, knotting the game at 6-6.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s frustrating,” said Whitlock. “You never want to do that.”

The positive aspect of seeing Giolito and Whitlock in the same game was that both righties had undergone an internal brace procedure last year and appear prepared to pitch meaningful games for the Sox in the coming months.

"Yeah, really proud of him,” said Whitlock. “Really happy that he's back with us and feeling healthy and everything. So, that’s the first thing I said when I went in there and saw him. I was like ‘Hey, congratulations. Welcome back.’ He threw really well, so I’m really happy for him.”

Giolito had signed a two-year, $38.5 million deal with Boston during Craig Breslow’s first offseason as the head of the front office. The road to his first start with the Red Sox wasn’t what he envisioned, but once he was back on the mound, he was ready to compete.

“The rehab outings were completely different,” Giolito said. “I was going out there and treating it more like spring training. There's no adrenaline, trying to work on some mechanical things. Coming out tonight, I'm happy with how I competed. I'm just not pleased with how I finished. I can definitely finish stronger than that.”

The addition of Giolito gives the Red Sox rotation a solid back-end arm, and Boston can move into the month of May with Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Walker Buehler, and Brayan Bello.

The loss on Wednesday ended the Sox’ three-game winning streak, and they’ve dropped to 17-15 but are in position to take the series finale in Toronto with Houck on the mound.

“We’re down because we lost the game,” said Cora. “But like I told [chief baseball officer Craig Breslow], there were a lot of positives today, and that’s what I’m taking to the [hotel] room tonight.”