BOSTON — After Lucas Giolito’s Jekyll-and-Hyde season bottomed out Wednesday with another blow-up outing at Fenway Park, the veteran pitcher was left with little in the way of answers.
“There’s no excuse,” Giolito said. “It’s super poor. I have to figure it the (expletive) out. Layoff, no, it doesn’t matter. This is the big leagues. You have to have a level of consistency. I’m gonna continue to work towards that. I don’t want to keep putting our ‘pen in that position. I don’t want to put our team in that position.”
Giolito, whose injury-delayed 2025 season has vacillated between dominant outings and blow-up showings, found a new low Wednesday, long before the Red Sox scrapped their way to a 7-6 walk-off victory over the Angels. He allowed five straight hits — including two doubles and a three-run homer — to start his inning in a four-run first and left after retiring just five batters. Giolito was tagged for seven earned runs on eight hits in just 1 ⅔ frames.
The 30-year-old now has a 10.47 ERA at Fenway this year after blow-up outings against Texas (6 earned runs in 3 ⅔ innings on May 6) and Atlanta (6 earned runs in 4 innings on May 17). Overall, he owns a 6.42 ERA in seven starts — and that includes a seven-shutout-inning performance against Baltimore on May 24 and an outing in Kansas City on May 11 when he allowed a single run on 6 ⅔ innings.
On a start-to-start basis, the Red Sox have no idea what they’ll get out of Giolito.
“There’s been like four outings this year where I go out and I don’t have feel for anything and I’m not able to make an adjustment,” he said. “I need to figure out how to make that adjustment if that’s the case. In this league, you need to go out and be able to throw strikes as a starting pitcher with at least two or three pitches. And be able to work ahead.
“It has been so back and forth. It has been frustrating overall. All I can do is keep working. That’s it. And get better. I need to get better.”
With the Red Sox in desperate need of a win after losing the first two games of the series against a lowly Angels team, Los Angeles came out swinging in the first. It took five pitches for Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel to plate the first run of the game with back-to-back doubles. Then, an 100.4 mph Mike Trout single put two on for Taylor Ward, who smoked a three-run homer at the exact same exit velocity. Giolito gave up four runs before recording an out and has now allowed nine runs and nine hits in the first inning (11.57 ERA) so far.
“I’ve had issues in the first inning in the past,” he said. “I’m obviously having issues in the first inning now. I think it’s a matter of being prepared to compete from Pitch 1, having a high level of focus and intent right out of the gate, and dictating the game rather than letting the game dictate you.”
Luckily for Giolito, the Red Sox fought back instantly and tagged Angels starter José Soriano for five runs in the bottom of the first. The lead lasted mere seconds, though, Kevin Newman (ground-rule double) and Neto (triple) tied the game five Giolito pitches later and another Schanuel double on a fastball over the plate put the Angels up, 6-5.
Three batters and another run later, manager Alex Cora went to righty Luis Guerrero out of the bullpen.
“I said to myself, ‘Don’t let that first inning define you. Go out pitch angry, pitch with intent,’” Giolito said. “And it was the same as the first inning.”
The Red Sox expected some sort of adjustment period from Giolito, who missed all of last year after internal brace surgery on an elbow ligament, then had his team debut further delayed by a hamstring strain suffered in spring training. Few, however, could have imagined such an inconsistent start to his year. The highs have been high, but the lows have been even lower. And the Red Sox bailed out their starter with a win Wednesday.
“I’m super proud of the team,“ he said. “Everyone came to play today, big-time. Bullpen was incredible. A lot is being asked of them. I put them in a terrible position. Guys who are down (unavailable) had to throw. But everybody came to play. We were able to get that win. That’s huge.”
