Giolito looks to maintain dominance against YankeesFLMThe rebuilding effort the Chicago White Sox began after the 2016 season is starting to show some positive results, especially when Lucas Giolito takes the mound.The 24-year-old right-hander attempts to get his ninth straight win and become the first 10-game winner in the major leagues Friday night when the White Sox host the New York Yankees in the second game of a four-game series.Giolito (9-1, 2.28 ERA) is attempting to become Chicago's first All-Star pitcher since Chris Sale and Jose Quintana in 2016. The White Sox acquired him from Washington for Adam Eaton in 2016, and the young hurler went 13-16 with a 5.35 ERA in first two seasons with Chicago.This year is different as Giolito enters the weekend series 8-0 with a 1.69 ERA in his last 10 starts since April 6.He is near the top of the American League leaderboards with a .505 opponents on-base plus slugging percentage, along with an 0.92 WHIP and the third-best ERA behind Minnesota's Jake Odorizzi and Tampa Bay's Charlie Morton. Giolito also is tied with Justin Verlander, Domingo German and Odorizzi for the AL lead in wins.Giolito last pitched a week ago in a 2-0 win at Kansas City when he won his eighth straight decision and seventh straight start by allowing three hits and getting 11 strikeouts to extend his scoreless innings streak to 22 innings. Giolito is the first pitcher to win seven straight starts since Blake Snell won nine in a row last season."It's fun because I have confidence that I'm going to throw more strikes than not and get deep into games," Giolito told reporters. "And it gets more fun as the game goes along. I'm challenging myself to get to the eighth inning. I'm out there thinking, 'Two-run lead. Let's get more zeroes.' It's a ton of fun." During Giolito's unbeaten streak, he has allowed three runs or more just three times. One of those instances was April 12 in New York when he pitched through some rain and allowed six runs (four earned) in five innings of a rain-shortened 9-6 victory. He is 1-1 with a 9.90 ERA in two career starts against the Yankees.Giolito will attempt to help the White Sox reach the .500 mark for the first time since April 5 when they were 3-3 following a win in Seattle. Chicago won for the 10th time in 15 games when it rallied from a four-run deficit to get a 5-4 victory Thursday as Tim Anderson hit a game-tying three-run homer and Leury Garcia capped an 11-pitch at-bat with a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh.The Yankees are 15 games over .500 but also have been slumping as of late. They went 32-10 from April 16-June 1 but lost for the seventh time in 10 games after striking out 12 times Thursday and getting three hits over the final five innings."There's a fine line between winning games and not winning games," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "We just haven't been quite as crisp in every facet. Hopefully tomorrow, we can start turning the corner on it." New York's starting pitching heads into Friday with 5.96 ERA in its last 11 games, and the Yankees hope CC Sabathia can trigger a turnaround.Sabathia (3-3, 3.96) will be making his third attempt at getting his 250th career win. He followed up a loss to Boston on June 2 by allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings Saturday in Cleveland.Sabathia is 19-7 with a 3.67 ERA in 38 career starts against the White Sox and 10-2 with a 3.40 ERA in 19 career starts in Chicago. Despite holding a .731 winning percentage that is tied for the sixth-highest amongst any opposing pitcher against the White Sox, he is 0-3 with a 3.99 ERA in his last five starts against Chicago since Sept. 4, 2013.--Field Level Media
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