The Pirates have been the worst team in the majors this season (7-19 after another loss to the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon) and against Giolito they only hit a few balls hard. One was at the very end, by Gonzalez, who smoked an 0-2 fastball to right field at 102.6 miles per hour off the bat. A ball like that is a hit 85 percent of the time, according to Statcast, but Adam Engel made a racing, off-balance catch to end the game.
With no fans in the stands, the White Sox did their best to create some atmosphere. Giolito said he noticed the automated crowd noise “getting louder and louder as the game went on.” It was his first no-hitter since a seven-inning performance in a Class AAA game in 2017.
That was Giolito’s first season with the White Sox organization after five years with the Washington Nationals, who chose him 16th overall in the 2012 draft. He most likely would have gone higher but teams had concerns about his elbow; he needed Tommy John surgery that September.
Giolito grew up in Santa Monica, Calif., with a Hollywood background. His parents, Rick Giolito and Lindsay Frost, are actors. A grandfather, Warren Frost, played George Costanza’s father-in-law, Henry Ross, on “Seinfeld.” An uncle, Mark Frost, was a co-creator of the TV series “Twin Peaks.”
But the family business was not for him. Giolito’s teammates at Harvard-Westlake High School included two other future major league starters, St. Louis’ Jack Flaherty and Atlanta’s Max Fried. Baseball was far more appealing than acting.
“I never even considered it because my mom always steered me clear of it,” Giolito said at the Futures Game in 2014. “She used to come home from auditions like, ‘Oh, this is the worst.’ I mean, it’s fun, especially if you love drama and acting and all that, but it’s a really tough industry. I think it’s a little more fun being able to go outside and play a sport for money than to grind through the hard side of auditions and memorizing lines.”