Fixing critical mechanical issue opened door for Giolito

Right-hander Lucas Giolito has been able to get extra work in as he waits for his second major league start, slated tonight in Flushing, N.Y., against the division rival New York Mets.

Giolito said he is looking forward to hopefully getting to pitch into at least the fifth inning and beyond after having his major league debut abbreviated after four frames due to rain.

"Yeah, it definitely would be fun to be out there longer," Giolito said. "The rain shortened it so it's unfortunate. But I've still been able to get some good work in. Over the past week I've been here I've thrown actually two bullpens to stay prepared for my next start in New York."

And tonight's start won't be in a quiet Carolina League stadium. Instead, he makes his road debut at Citi Field in front of the New York faithful.

"I know that they have a pretty cool atmosphere over there," Giolito smiled. "It will be my first time being a road team in a major league stadium. I know that there's like some heckling and stuff like that going on. I think that's fun, it's all part of the game. I'm excited for it."

Fans have hoped to see Giolito promoted for quite some time. But if you rewind to the beginning of this season, Giolito was struggling with his command. Pitches he had made last season were not finding the strike zone or fooling hitters. It felt like Nats Park was far off in the future and not just around the corner.

In his first seven starts at Double-A Harrisburg, he walked 20 batters. Against Hartford, he got tagged for six runs on five hits in three innings. He was 0-2 through five starts with a 5.30 ERA.

So the 21-year-old sat down with Senators pitching coach Chris Michalak and Nationals pitching coordinator Paul Menhart. They studied video. They broke down his mechanics section by section. They worked on those adjustments in the bullpen. Giolito said the issue had to do with how he was opening up too much in his move to the plate. His lower half wasn't in tune with his upper half to complete his pitching motion.

"I got way too fat quick on my front side, both my legs and my upper body. I kind of like hinge out and like open up way too early and fly open," Giolito said. "My command was terrible. Beginning of the season my stuff wasn't as good, it was flat. I worked hard with Menhart and Michalak and we kind of ironed all that stuff out. Now my mechanics are back where they need to be."

They looked at his pitching motion on video over and over. Giolito said that he had repeated the altered motion in his delivery so much it became commonplace.

"I would feel it. It was such a bad habit that doing all that wrong stuff would kind of feel normal," Giolito said. "It started with (Michalik) pointing it out and saying 'hey, we need to work on getting the legs right, staying closed', all that stuff. Then I looked at video and talked to Menhart and it went from there."

Once his pitching motion and mechanics were in tune he returned to the Giolito the coaching staff and team knew he could be. After striking out 13 hitters in April, he rebounded to strike out 29 in May and 30 in June. He went a combined 5-2 in May and June. His ERA dropped from 5.30 to 2.71 and finished at 3.17 before his call up.

In his first two weeks with the Nats, Giolito has soaked in the knowledge from veteran Max Scherzer and has become good friends with his clubhouse neighbor Joe Ross.

"I talk to all the starting pitchers," Giolito said. "We kind of hang together in the dugout during the game and everything. Max loves to talk pitching. So at any point in the game I talk to him about whatever's going on in the game. I'm pretty good friends with Joe (Ross) already, just because our lockers are next to each other and we're two of the younger guys on the team. I feel really at home here. It's awesome."

And tonight it's 21-year-old Giolito opposing 43-year-old Bartolo Colon in a critical opening matchup between the Nationals and Mets. Amazingly, they have actually already met in a baseball game. He faced Colon for two innings in spring training.

"It's pretty interesting. Baseball is such a cool sport in that way," Giolito said. "I'm basically half his age and I'll be pitching against him. It's awesome. It's an honor too. He's had a great career."