Boston's Lucas Giolito tosses 8-inning gem as Red Sox shutout Orioles

Lucas Giolito pumped his fist and turned off the mound after an 11-pitch battle that he won by striking out Jeremiah Jackson on a changeup to get the final out in the eighth inning, as the Red Sox defeated the Orioles, 5-0, on Tuesday night.

Giolito was locked in all night, firing eight scoreless innings, outdueling the returning Kyle Bradish, who had been on the injured list rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. The Sox’ big righty carved up the Orioles, allowing four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.

“Excellent, excellent. Fastball command was on point, the offspeed stuff was great and under control, and we were a little bit short in the bullpen, and he gave us more than enough,” Alex Cora said after the game.

He recorded 12 swings and misses on the evening. Four came with his four-seamer, five with his changeup, and three with his slider, according to Statcast. The right-hander threw his fastball 51% of the time and landed 69 of his 104 pitches for strikes.

If Jackson had won his lengthy at-bat against Giolito in the eighth inning, Cora was going to have to use his All-Star closer to handle one of the Orioles' best hitters. 

“We were going to Chappy for Gunnar (Henderson), but (Giolito) kept pounding the strike zone,” Cora said. “That’s what you have to do in that situation. If he hits it out of the ballpark, it’s a 3-2 game. We still have the lead, but if you walk him, then you can run into trouble. But credit to Giolito and catcher Carlos Narváez; they were locked in the whole game, and that was excellent.”

The 31-year-old veteran has been outstanding this season and he improved his record to 9-2 with a 3.47 ERA this season, and given his current performance, he is expected to anchor the rotation alongside ace Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello as Boston aims for the postseason.

Giolito has gone eight innings twice this month, and Tuesday night’s start was the longest scoreless outing since he tossed a no-hitter for the White Sox back in 2020.

“You can’t expect a no-hitter, but I was trying," Giolito said. "I tried as hard as I could, but it’s very hard to pull off. You have to get lucky, but, yeah, overall, solid."

The Red Sox improved to 73-60 on the season, now sitting 13 games above .500 for the second time this year, and they have won five of six games on this current road trip and have two more to play with the Orioles before heading home this weekend to face the Pirates.

Over his first five innings, Giolito was incredibly efficient, not encountering any trouble until the sixth inning, when a pair of weakly hit grounders put two runners on with one out. Giolito wasn’t fazed and struck out Henderson looking on an inside pitch and then forced Colton Cowser to ground out to end the threat.

The Sox’ offense got the scoring started in the second inning when Trevor Story belted his 200th career homer, a 372-foot blast into left field. It was Story’s 21st home run of the season, and he now has 83 RBI on the season.

Story now has 200 career homers and 150 steals, and since 2016 the only other players to achieve that milestone are Jose Altuve, Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor, Shohei Ohtani, José Ramírez, and Christian Yelich.

“It’s a cool benchmark to hit,” Story told reporters in the clubhouse following the win.

David Hamilton provided a little pop of his own, hitting his fourth homer of the year, hammering a 93.1 mph sinker from Bradish that went 364 feet, to put Boston ahead 2-0 in the third inning.

Hamilton has been struggling this season, entering play on Tuesday night 27-for-144 (.188). He also laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Ceddanne Rafaela over to third base in the eighth inning and hit a two-run double in the ninth to add a few more runs on the board.

On the Sox’ current road trip, his bat has come alive, going 6-for-15 with a triple, a homer, two walks, four strikeouts, and one steal.

Overall, Bradish was sharp in his return to the big leagues, striking out 10 and walking none while giving up the two homers. It was his first start in 438 days, and Bradish flashed impressive stuff early on in the first inning, working a 1-2-3 inning on 13 pitches. Bradish will give the Orioles' rotation a massive boost down the stretch. Baltimore’s starting rotation’s ERA was 4.74 entering play on Tuesday, ranking them 25th in MLB.

“I think that was the only way we were going to score runs off him,” said Cora about the Sox' offense. “That was electric. Good for him. It’s so tough to come back from injuries, and that stuff was really good. The fastball was explosive, and the sinker was great. He was tough; he was really tough today. 

"One of the best we faced this year.”

The Red Sox and Orioles will play the third game of their four-game series on Wednesday night beginning at 6:35 pm. Bello (10-6, 3.07 ERA) will get the start for Boston. The Orioles have not yet named a starter and have listed him as TBD.