The Cubs appear to be Lucas Giolito’s kryptonite.
A year ago, it would have been silly to make any comparison involving the pitcher with the highest ERA in baseball and the Man of Steel, but for the vast majority of the first half of the 2019 campaign, Giolito has been akin to Superman.
But not when he’s pitched against the Crosstown rivals.
After allowing six runs in 4.1 innings in his outing at Wrigley Field a couple weeks ago, Giolito went out and repeated the unfortunate feat Saturday night on the South Side, surrendering six runs in just four innings, including five in a nightmare fifth in which he walked the first three batters and gave up two-run doubles to the next two. At that was it. The All-Star hurler was pulled before recording an out in the fifth.
“For some reason, just didn’t work out for me that inning,” a visibly unhappy Giolito said after the game.
Whether there's something about facing the North Siders or these just happened to be when Giolito had two hiccups in an otherwise stellar season, certainly this wasn’t how Giolito wanted to end his first half. But he’ll now travel to Cleveland for All-Star festivities with a pair of clunkers in his last four outings, both coming against these Cubs.
In two starts against the Cubs this season, Giolito has a 12.96 ERA. In 15 starts against all other opponents, Giolito has a 2.26 ERA. And so instead of improving upon the 2.72 mark he entered the weekend with, he’ll sit at the All-Star Game with his season ERA at 3.15.
Giolito’s trademark in this transformative season has been his ability to move on from the rough patches, to turn individual games from potential disasters into victories, to prevent one off night from becoming several. That’s the next test whenever his next start comes following the break.
And he very well could flush this one and forget about it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s already forgotten about it.
“I’m not worried about my year or anything. I’m very frustrated with this game, clearly,” Giolito said. “The loss is on me. It’s all on me. It was one inning where I got out of sync and couldn’t correct it. They took advantage. I walked three and a little base hit over third baseman’s head. That’s it.
“You walk the bases loaded with zero outs and you’re inviting some bad stuff to happen.”
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