2020 OOTP sim: The White Sox lose the pitching duel
KANSAS CITY — After a thrilling series-comeback win against Minnesota, the Chicago White Sox have lost two in a row against the Kansas City Royals.
The outlook for a win on Wednesday looked good, as the Sox were 6-4 against the Royals this season, and Danny Duffy (1-6, 4.76 ERA) was the starter. Even better, Dallas Keuchel was starting for the South Siders.
Keuchel was perfect through three innings to begin the ball game. In fact, both pitchers were throwing fire, as the first hit of the game did not come until the fourth. Whit Merrifield broke the game's hitless streak with an infield single. Brian Dozier followed an out later with an infield hit of his own to put runners on the corners. However, Jorge Soler's 4-6-3 double play ended the scoring opportunity.
The Royals's third hit came with two outs in the bottom of the sixth: Whit Merrifield bunted.
The Sox, on the other hand, were pretty silent until the top of the seventh inning. Duffy was simply dealing. However, Tim Anderson, Stick-Talk LEGEND, drove a baseball 432 feet to left-center field to give the Sox a late, 1-0 lead!
In the eighth inning, Eloy Jiménez struck out for the fourth time in the game. Not what you love to see...
And in the bottom of the eighth, it got worse.
The Royals had their first out-of-the-infield hit. Nicky Lopez singled to center — but do not fret, Alex Gordon notched an infield hit to follow. With two outs and a 3-2 count, White Sox-killer Merrifield doubled down the left-field line to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.
Ian Kennedy locked down the save, as he worked around a two-out single off of Yasiel Puig's bat.
Somehow and in some way, the White Sox had 11 strikeouts and zero walks against Kansas City "pitching."
The Sox drop to 31-30, 7 ½ games out of first place in the AL Central, and 2 ½ games in back of the wild card.
Fortunately, Michael Kopech was called up from the Charlotte Knights. In his stint, he was 1-0 with zero earned runs in 18 ⅔ innings. He did walk 10 and didn't really clear up his swelled pitch counts, but he also struck out 24 batters in three starts. Besides, it's hard to argue with a 0.00 ERA.
Kopech is set to face Glenn Sparkman (2-2, 6.31). I think the rookie will turn this losing streak around and avoid the sweep!
