As a kid I remember watching several Cub games where one of the starting pitchers was perfect through four or five innings. Occasionally, both starters might not surrender the first hit until the fifth inning and it wasn’t anything special.

And we’re not talking Jenkins, Messersmith, Sutton, but rather, the likes of Bill Bonham, Paul Moskau and Geoff Zahn. More often that not, these starts didn’t result in wins, but they were indications how anyone could get on a roll and stymie some pretty mediocre lineups.

Last night Sox starter, Lucas Giolito exited the game after 6 hitless innings and a 3-0 lead. The announcers mentioned it was his second such start of the season. It’s funny but they failed to mention or remember how they had been recently befuddled by the Tigers, Michael Lorenzen (5 perfect innings) and Reese Olson (5 no-hit innings).

Starts of this sort aren’t limited to the confines of the AL Central. Recently, Marcus Stroman and Drew Smyly of the Cubs flirted with perfection and the Reds Hunter Greene no-hit the Cubs for five innings.

The bigger story of the season is the pitch clock and the quicker paced games, but I’d argue there have been some hidden pitching gems among all the offensive outbursts. Predicting when any of these things will happen is as difficult as hitting a Devin Williams change.