Lucas Giolito tied the wrong type of career-high on Wednesday by surrendering nine earned runs in a disastrous start against the Atlanta Braves (GameTracker). It was Giolito's second appearance since being dealt to the Los Angeles Angels last week as part of a four-player swap with the Chicago White Sox.
Giolito had previously allowed nine earned runs on just one other occasion. That came back in April 2018, when he did the deed against the Houston Astros.
Giolito, 29, finished his afternoon having given up those nine runs on eight hits and three walks. He yielded three home runs in the process, with those coming off the bats of Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, and Matt Olson. Giolito was replaced in the fourth inning by fellow right-hander Jaime Barria.
Giolito made his Angels debut last Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays. In that contest, he gave up three runs on six hits and a walk over 5 ⅓ innings. The Angels dropped that game by a 4-1 final.
The Angels obtained Giolito and Reynaldo López from the White Sox in exchange for minor-league catcher Edgar Quero and left-hander Ky Bush. (You can see where Quero and Bush rank among prospects traded at the deadline by clicking here.) López, for his part, has thrown three scoreless innings in two outings since.
The trade netting Giolito and López was just part of an aggressive deadline from the Angels. General manager Perry Minasian also acquired first baseman C.J. Cron, outfielder Randal Grichuk, and reliever Dominic Leone in deals designed to improve the Angels' playoff odds. All those moves came after the Angels decided to keep two-way star Shohei Ohtani rather than trade him ahead of his winter date with free agency.
The Angels entered Wednesday three games back of the final American League wild-card spot.
