From the Locker Room: Lucas Authors a Gem
On Tuesday, Lucas Giolito became just the fifth pitcher in baseball history to take a perfect game into the seventh inning of a playoff game.
In an extraordinary admission, Giolito wasn't even feeling right for the first third to his perfecto.
"The first two innings, I wasn’t in sync from the get-go," Giolito admitted. "As the game went on, started to find the rhythm, and from there it started feeling like playing catch."
But once Giolito got his legs under him, though, watch out. Did you notice? Well, Giolito's shortstop, Tim Anderson noticed, saying he saw his pitcher go into "Bully Stage."
"When I start commanding my fastball, throwing my change to the bottom of the zone," Giolito explained "Today, finding the release point on the slider and getting it to the opposite of the plate, then I get to the Bully Stage...was that what Tim was calling it?"
The final results from a nervous Opening Day to a hardly-nervous Game 1 start were remarkable—almost perfect. And we may have a schedule-maker to thank for that.
"I'm not doing to lie, I was a little bit nervous last night," Giolito admitted. "Once I stepped between the lines, it was like any other start...the early start didn’t give me enough time to think about anything. I usually don’t love day games, 'cause I’m not a morning person. But it ended up working out today."
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Lucas Giolito footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.