Thursday, December 12, 2024

Lucas Giolito burned by 3 home runs in Angels’ loss to Phillies

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PHILADELPHIA — The Angels are still waiting to see the Lucas Giolito they expected when they announced their intention to go for it by acquiring him.

Giolito gave up five runs in the Angels’ 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, increasing his ERA to 6.89 in six starts with the Angels. The Angels have lost five of his starts.

Giolito had a 3.79 ERA with the Chicago White Sox before the July 26 deal, which also brought hard-throwing reliever Reynaldo López to the Angels. At the time, the Angels were in the thick of the race for an American League wild-card spot, but since then just about everything has gone wrong and the Angels have been relegated to playing out the string over the final month.

Giolito has the added incentive of trying to pitch well as he heads into free agency this winter.

He said he felt better about the way he was throwing in his previous three starts, despite middling results, but he struggled in 5⅔ innings on Monday.

Giolito gave up three home runs, two of them to Trea Turner. The first was on a changeup on the inside corner, but the second was an 0-and-2 slider that Giolito hung at the thighs.

In between, Giolito threw a fastball over the middle that Bryce Harper crushed for a two-run homer.

That blast followed a walk to Turner, one of Giolito’s three walks.

The Angels tried to overcome Giolito’s rough start with a solid performance offensively, getting production from throughout the lineup.

Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo and Mickey Moniak each had three of the Angels’ 11 hits. Drury drove in two with a two-out single in the fourth, briefly giving the Angels a 3-1 lead.

Moniak, who also drove in a run to cut the deficit to 5-4 in the seventh, was playing his first game against the team that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft. Moniak also made a leaping catch at the fence to save two runs.

More to come on this story.

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