Lance Lynn allowed three runs in the first inning, then gave up two more in the third.
It was no way to get a scuffling White Sox team untracked Tuesday afternoon.
“I’ve got to be better,” said Lynn, who fell to 0-2 with a 7.59 ERA in four starts after the Phillies’ 7-4 victory in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field. “I’m not in a good rhythm, I’m not throwing the ball well and I’m not having productive outings.”
Be better? Lucas Giolito certainly was in Game 2, pitching six innings of hitless ball in a 3-0 win that gave the Sox a badly needed split and a chance for an elusive series win against the Phillies on Wednesday afternoon. Giolito was pulled with his pitch count at 102.
The loss in Game 1 dropped the Sox to 6-11, an alarming development for a team with postseason aspirations.
“There was some urgency there; we needed this ballgame,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “Can’t get too far behind. It’s early, yeah, of course, but we don’t want to get to a place where we have to climb too far.”
“You know it’s April, but you know you’ve got to get it moving just to make sure you don’t get too far behind,” Lynn said.
That’s why the Sox needed Giolito to step up in an April must-win situation, and he responded by striking out seven and walking one, lowering his ERA to 4.29.
No-hitter thoughts?
“We were just trying to get a win,” catcher Seby Zavala said. “We have to get this thing rolling. Hopefully, that was a good kick-start for us.”
Kendall Graveman pitched a hitless seventh before Brandon Marsh led off the eighth with a double against left-hander Aaron Bummer, bringing boos from the crowd. But Reynaldo Lopez got a four-out save, his third, completing a combined one-hitter. Left fielder Romy Gonzalez made a diving catch to limit damage.
The Sox had one combined no-hitter, when John “Blue Moon” Odom and Francisco Barrios went five and four innings, respectively, against the Athletics on July 28, 1976.
Jake Burger, filling in for injured Yoan Moncada, smashed a three-run homer in the first inning against lefty Bailey Falter, giving Giolito a 3-0 lead. It was Burger’s fourth homer in five games, and it left a mark, traveling 417 feet and exiting his bat at 118.2 mph.
Grifol called the loss in Game 1 “tough,” the Sox’ fifth in the last six games. The Sox got to within a run with a four-run third by stringing six straight hits against Zack Wheeler, but former Sox infielder Josh Harrison’s two-run homer against Jimmy Lambert in the seventh was the dagger.
Harrison, the No. 9 hitter in the Phillies’ lineup, had a two-run single in the third and finished with four RBI.
Luis Robert Jr.’s two-run double and Andrew Vaughn’s two-run single were the run-scoring blows for the Sox in Game 1.
But the Sox had two baserunners after the fourth against Wheeler and the Phillies’ bullpen. Lambert pitched out of a jam in the sixth in relief of Lynn to keep the Sox within one run, and after retiring the first two batters in the seventh, allowed a single to Jake Cave and the 399-foot homer to Harrison.
But Giolito showed the way in Game 2.
“Gio was electric,” Grifol said. “Was commanding all his pitches and had great mound presence.
“We lost a tough ballgame in the day game, and that dugout was electric from the first pitch [in Game 2].”
Grifol knows fans’ patience is already wearing thin.
“Passionate fans that know the game, and when they scream something, they are making sense when they scream and what they are screaming,” Grifol said before the game. “I appreciate that.
“They have the right to do that. They pay money to come in here and watch baseball, and it’s our job to provide good baseball. That’s what we are trying to do.”
Giolito said being in a good rhythm and bringing a good mound presence “was hugely crucial” for him.
“I was in here watching the first game,” Giolito said. “We lost, and I knew it would be hugely important for us to take Game 2.
“I knew I wouldn’t get through nine. I lobbied for the seventh inning, but I understand going out in April already at 102 pitches.’’
