Giolito shines in best Double-A start

After two tough lessons, Lucas Giolito has turned the tables on the Eastern League.

The Nationals' top prospect tied a career high with 11 strikeouts and gave up one hit over seven innings on Friday night, pitching Double-A Harrisburg to a 2-0 blanking of visiting Bowie.

Giolito (1-1) issued one walk in matching his longest outing of the season. After yielding a one-out single to Chance Sisco in the second inning, he retired the final 17 batters to face him, throwing 63 of 99 pitches for strikes.

"I was pitching off my fastball," Giolito (1-1) said. "A lot of today was fastballs early in the count and then finish them off with the curveball or changeup, depending on the situation.

"I had a little bit of a nice groove and everything was working. I'm all about early contact; I was just trying to keep the ball down and get some good early contact and let the defense work, but I was able to get ahead of guys and put them away.

Giolito, who also fanned 11 for Class A Advanced Potomac on May 14, picked up his first Double-A win in his fourth start for the Senators. After allowing 10 earned run in his first two Eastern League outings, the California native has yielded one earned run on eight hits over his last 13 2/3 innings.

"Double-A hitters are a little more disciplined. They are good at hitting mistake pitches," the 21-year-old right-hander said. "This was the first night I was able to keep the fastball consistently down in the zone.

"I've actually been working on some mechanical adjustments with my pitching coach, Chris Michalak. My mechanics got a little bit out of a whack a few weeks ago, I wasn't doing a good job of staying closed. I was falling behind batters. We've been working hard on keeping that front side closed."

After spending the first month of the season in Florida in an effort to keep his innings down, Giolito has moved quickly this season, going 3-5 with a 2.71 ERA in 13 Carolina League outings before his promotion.

"It's been great," MLB.com's No. 3 overall prospect said. "Last year, coming back from surgery, it was all about getting my innings and getting used to pro ball. This year was a little bit more about competing and making strides as a pitcher. I feel like this year has been good in that regard."

Bryan Harper followed Giolito and fanned two in a perfect eighth before Paul Demny struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save. The shutout was Harrisburg's seventh of the season.

Nationals No. 5 prospect Wilmer Difo plated the Senators' first run with a groundout in the second and No. 26 prospect Brian Goodwin delivered an RBI single two batters later.

Nick Additon (1-1) gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven over seven innings in his second start for the Baysox.