Lucas Giolito strikes out 13 en route to no-hitter against Pirates

Lucas Giolito has no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates, the first of the 2020 MLB season

The Pirates’ Tuesday night lineup featured only one player batting above .230, and Giolito was in the zone. It was a recipe for disaster for Pittsburgh, who found out the hard way the White Sox young star righty is the real deal and then some. His 13 strikeouts were the most ever in a White Sox no-no.

Giolito was acquired from the Washington Nationals in the Adam Eaton trade, a move that at the time seemed like a fair swap. Since then, however, Eaton hasn’t seen much action in Washington due to injury, and Giolito has emerged into arguably the best starter on the White Sox staff.

Giolito overpowered the Pirates hitters all night, making for an impressive performance and a night fans watching from Chicago’s South Side won’t ever forget, marking an incredible turnaround in the process.

Giolito’s no-no is just the latest memorable moment from the White Sox cinderella season so far

Social distancing was ignored in the aftermath of Giolito’s no-no, and we don’t blame them in the slightest. While the White Sox franchise is quite familiar with no-hitters, this being their 19th, it’s still a special moment in a season otherwise defined by fan-less baseball and a pandemic.

Giolito’s fastball, changeup and slider were all working to his advantage on Tuesday, and the Pirates were equally fooled by all three.

Come the later innings, the White Sox took part in the usual theatrics as a pitcher is close to entering legend status — they stayed as far away as possible. As it turns out, those tactics worked out just fine.

Even against the lowly Pirates, this feat cannot and should not be overlooked. On the surface, holding a major league baseball team to no hits in 27 or more at-bats is near impossible. Were it not for one lone walk to Erik Gonzalez, the leadoff man, Giolito would’ve been perfect himself.

The White Sox are a scary out come playoff time in part because of their powerful lineup, consisting of Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and more. But their rotation, with Giolito and Dallas Keuchel, is just as capable. We caught a glimpse of why that’s the case on Tuesday.