A Tale of Two Pitchers

The White Sox and Royals split a day-night doubleheader yesterday during which the injury bug tried to strike again. In the top of the second of game one, first baseman Jose Abreu collided—and I mean collided—with batter Hunter Dozier in pursuit of a foul popup. Things look day-to-day, which is about as good as you could hope for. The Sox were up 1-0 at the time, with one out and one on for Kansas City. Once play resumed, starter Lucas Giolito grooved the first pitch he threw to Michael Taylor; that made it 2-1, KC. The next inning, Giolito grooved one to Salvador Perez, making the score 5-1, bad guys. The Royals broke an eleven game losing streak, 6-2. Manager Tony La Russa offered a stout defense of Giolito, noting that both balls were of the wind-aided variety. OK, but shouldn’t the starting pitcher be aware of conditions at game time? Wouldn’t a smart pitcher change his approach with the wind blowing out? Giolito is a smart pitcher, no? In game two, Michael Kopech went four innings in a 3-1 Sox win, yielding a run on two hits and two walks to go with five strikeouts. Afterwards, Kopech told reporters, “I know things were a little down [because of the Abreu-Dozier collision], especially after we had been so up the last six games or so. I felt like I competed well and did the job I was supposed to do today. [Sun-Times]” Indeed he did. Now tell me why the number one starter couldn’t.