Giolito rocked as Twins down Sox in opener

After a long, long wait for baseball, the White Sox's effort in a 10-5 loss to the Twins Friday night wasn't worth it.

“I think we're not going to see too many games like tonight,” rookie center fielder Luis Robert said after going 2-for-4 in his major-league debut. “We have a better team to get a better outcome.”

If there was a crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field for Friday night's season opener, the reactions would have been mixed.

Early boos for White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito, who was rocked by the Twins for 4 runs in the first inning.

Saying it “truly is an honor” before taking the mound for his first Opening Day start, Giolito's first pitch of the game was crushed by Max Kepler for the first of his 2 home runs.

Seven more hitters came to the plate in the first inning as Minnesota roared out to a 4-0 lead while making Giolito throw 31 pitches.

It was a tough night for the Sox's ace, who lasted just 3.2 innings and allowed 7 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks.

“Stuff felt really good,” Giolito said. “Velocity and everything was a couple ticks higher. The ball was definitely coming out, but I was going way too quick. Pretty much the story of the night was no fastball command and so I got hurt.”

Thriving on energy from the home crowd, Giolito had some concerns about taking the mound surrounded by empty seats.

“We have our cardboard cutouts, which is cool,” he said. “I've just got my two pets out there, so they'll be with me, cheering me on kind of. But I think that's the biggest challenge, the environment is not exactly like a major-league baseball environment, playing in front of 10s of thousands.

“Just being able to find that focus, find that rhythm and tempo without having that same level of crowd noise and that environment, I think that's the biggest challenge for everyone.”

While Giolito was trying to find a flow, a pre-coronavirus pandemic crowd would have turned the early jeers to cheers in the second inning.

Trailing the Twins 5-1, the Sox rallied back to tie it against starting pitcher Jose Berrios.

After Eloy Jimenez led off the second with a single and came around to score on a wild pitch, Yoan Moncada blasted a 3-run homer to right field

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Moncada wasn't sure if he'd be able to play late last week when he reported to the White Sox's summer camp after recovering from COVID-19. He wound up picking up right where he left off in 2019, when Moncada led the majors with a .412 batting average in September.

“We're very excited to have him back,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “A big, big piece of the puzzle.”

Given new life, Giolito retired Minnesota in order in the third inning before running out gas. The right-hander was lifted with two outs in the fourth with a pitch count of 80.

“I had one good inning, that's when I made the nice adjustment, kind of slowed things down,” Giolito said. “I just didn't make the adjustment when I really needed to in the first inning. A big first inning is not something I want to happen. Do a better job of setting the tone and have a clean first.”

If there were fans for the season opener, they would have been yawning, and likely exiting early, as the game progressed.

Renteria hit his expanded 11-man bullpen hard as the game dragged on and the Twins pulled away.

With the season trimmed back to 60 games, halting a losing streak early will be more important than ever. That's especially true when the White Sox are playing the Twins, an offensive machine and the defending AL Central champions.

“Playing against the club that took the division is important in that we can go out there and see where we're at,” Renteria said. “We have to perform and execute, they're a very good ballclub. Today is the beginning. I know it's a short season, we're going to go out there and do what we can to win a major-league ballgame. It's not easy to win one, let alone against a very good club, but that's our goal.”