White Sox young core overcomes postseason jitters early

Chicago White Sox prove they aren’t intimidated by the postseason stage

Lucas Giolito was a little less than perfect, but the Chicago White Sox couldn’t have asked for a better start to their postseason than what they got on Tuesday.

Playing their first playoff game in 12 years, the White Sox defeated the Oakland Athletics 4-1 at the Oakland Coliseum in the opening game of their best-of-three Wild Card series. Giolito flirted with perfection, while Adam Engel, Jose Abreu, and Yasmani Grandal hit home runs to power the White Sox to victory.

Giolito, making his first postseason start, retired the first 18 Athletics batters he faced, taking a perfect game into the seventh before Tommy La Stella broke up his bid with a lead-off single. He was only the fifth starting pitcher in MLB history to pitch at least six perfect innings, joining Herb Pennock, Jim Lonborg, Mike Mussina, and, of course, Don Larsen.

Giolito looked like a postseason vet in his first start

He only got better as the game went on. Giolito induced just two swinging strikes over the first three innings but 11 in the next four. He left after giving up a run with nobody out in the eighth, giving up just two hits and striking out eight. He’s the first pitcher to go at least seven innings while surrendering two or fewer hits and striking out at least eight in his postseason debut since Michael Wacha did it for the Cardinals in 2013.

Giolito held down the Athletics defensively. The offense gave him some runs to work with. Engel opened the scoring with a solo home run off Athletics starter Jesus Luzardo in the second, the first White Sox postseason homer in more than 4,300 days. An inning later, first baseman Abreu, who is in the conversation for AL MVP, hit a two-run home run in just the second postseason at-bat of his career, a 412-foot shot to left-center off Luzardo that gave Chicago a 3-0 lead. Grandal, one of the few White Sox who actually has prior postseason experience, added another solo home run in the eighth.

Tim Anderson added three hits, while Engel and Abreu both went 2-4. Even 23-year-old rookie outfielder Luis Robert collected a hit. Anderson, Abreu, and Engel had combined to play 1,896 regular season games in their careers but had never appeared in a postseason game. Abreu ranked fourth among active players in most career games without a postseason appearance, behind only Kyle Seager, Jean Segura, and Freddy Galvis.

The moment proved not to be too big for them. It helped that the Athletics played right into their strengths by sending out the left-hander Luzardo to face them; the White Sox hit .285 with a .887 OPS against left-handers this season and were 14-0 when facing a left-handed starter.

They’re now a win away from dispatching the Athletics and winning their first playoff series since their World Series title in 2005. They may be young and experiencing the postseason for the first time, but the White Sox are talented and proved they weren’t scared of the added postseason pressure.