Giolito go boom: Yankees 7, White Sox 3

Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

There was one positive to tonight’s 7-3 pasting of the Chicago White Sox by the New York Yankees.

Through one inning, the White Sox were ahead, 2-0.

But Lucas Giolito started the second with a four-pitch walk, and sandwiched three straight singles around a whiff to help the Yankees even the score 2-2. And it got worse from there.

With one out and runners on first and second, Giolito planted a 1-2 curve on Brett Gardner’s foot, packing the sacks with Bombers and bringing Giancarlo Stanton to the plate. Giolito missed badly with two fastballs, then threw an ill-advised changeup that was too far inside for Stanton to smack onto the Dan Ryan. At 3-0, Giolito threw his third and fourth 94 mph heaters in on Stanton enough to get him to grab two strikes on fouls.

Giolito then tripled up Stanton with four-seamers, a third straight and fifth of the sequence right at 94 mph — and this time delivered it center-cut. Don’t know what the hell a Big Beef Slamwich is, but Stanton couldn’t have asked for a juicier cut.

It wasn’t a no-brainer grand slam, barely staying fair and barely getting over the right-field fence. But it still counted for four points, effectively ending the game a stanza and a half into the game.

Ending the game? That’s a bit harsh, Hamster. Well, the Yankees had their ace, Luis Severino, dealing like an ace tonight, so yeah, game over. Severino improved to 15-5 with seven innings of seven-hit, eight-strikeout, three-earned ball, for a game score of 61.

Giolito ended up with a linescore similar to what we’ve seen far too often this season: More earned runs (seven) than innings (five), with multiple walks (three). Positives? Well, the up-and-down righty only gave up six hits, and whiffed seven. Still, a game score of 26 is beyond poor; Giolito’s ERA, briefly less than 6.00, has ballooned back to 6.23, worst of all qualifying pitchers in the major leagues.

It didn’t have to end this way — or at least it could have been more of a beerleaguer battle, with multiple runs and rallies piling up.

The White Sox did jump on Severino early, with three straight one-out hits (Yolmer Sánchez single, José Abreu RBI double, Daniel Palka RBI single). But Chicago couldn’t keep the string going, as Avisaíl García grounded into a force out and Nicky Delmonico whiffed.

In the fifth, Aaron Hicks extended the Yanquis lead to 7-2 with a no-doubter blast on a rolling curve ball from Giolito. Tim Anderson answered in the bottom of the frame, hitting a much-doubter to right (hardly tagged better than Stanton’s in the second) for his 15th homer of the season.

Jeanmar Gómez rescued Giolito from further game score free-fall by entering in the sixth, and having an odd outing: three walks, no earned runs, no hits over 1 ¹⁄₃ innings. Hector Santiago finished up the game and was stellar, with five Ks against just one hit over the final 2 ²⁄₃ of the game.

The White Sox offset their surprising Tampa Bay Rays road sweep with a far-more-predictable three straight losses at home against the Yankees.

After an off-day that we’ll all spend debating from where Michael Kopech’s Instagram photos are originating or which over-the-counter medications healed Eloy Jiménez’s flu with a first at-bat homer tonight for Charlotte, the Cleveland Indians arrive in town to extend our misery.