White Sox’ Lucas Giolito pitches six innings of no-hit ball against Yankees

NEW YORK — Lucas Giolito ran out of pitches.

With no hits allowed but his pitch count at 100 through six innings, the White Sox right-hander was pulled by manager Pedro Grifol in a 3-2 win at Yankee Stadium Tuesday night.

“It’s tough to go back out,” Giolito said. “You are already past the 100 pitch mark. It’s six innings. It’s kind of like the Phillies.”

Giolito is the first pitcher since Max Scherzer in 2015 to have more than one six-inning no-hit bids in a season. He also had six no-hit innings against the Phillies in April. He is the second Sox starter to pitch six-plus hitless innings against the Yankees in New York, joining Melido Perez in 1990.

Facing a shorthanded Yankees lineup, Giolito struck out seven and walked three, exiting with a three-run lead. Catcher Seby Zavala hit a solo homer in the first against Yankees righty Clarke Schmidt and homered again in the fifth, a two-run shot.

“For me it’s good, for the team it’s better,” said Zavala, who is batting .171 with three homers. “Came off a sweep [against the Tigers at home]. If we can keep it rolling, that would be great.”

The Yankees got their first hit against reliever Joe Kelly in the seventh, and it was a fluke. With two outs and a runner on first, Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s fly ball landed near center fielder Luis Robert Jr.’s feet for an RBI double. Left fielder and Andrew Benintendi was also close enough to make the play, but neither outfielder took charge.

Giolito pitched a no-hitter against the Pirates on Aug. 25, 2020. He threw 101 pitches in that game.

“My stuff felt really good; fastball felt very lively,” Giolito said. “Too many balls. If I stay in the zone a little bit more ... was getting ahead of a lot of guys but throwing a lot of balls as they are working 2-2, 3-2 counts. They had a good patient approach, which I unfortunately kind of played into a little bit. One takeaway from that is be more efficient, be more in the zone. Attack the zone.”

“We had the right at-bats against him, made him work, got his pitch count up, a lot of three ball counts, worked some walks, but just weren’t able to ding him at all,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “and that was a result of him staying out of the heart of the plate. I thought he did a good job moving both sides but also up and down. We had some tough at-bats against him; just couldn’t quite finish him off. He was tough tonight.”