MLB: The Show Players League — The White Sox ace bounces back
Coming off a drismal 1-3 night, Lucas decided to turn those odds around, literally. Per tradition, White Sox play-by-play man Jason Benetti was on the stream. Lucas and his Twitch channel were ready to start fresh from Thursday and rise up in the playoff standings. With so many people donating to Lucas' charity, the Orphan Kitten Project, the night was more than ready to get underway!
Game 24: Chicago White Sox at San Francisco Giants
For the second time during this competition, Lucas Giolito's game was aired on ESPN2! Last time, Giolito was crushed by Blake Snell and the virtual Tampa Bay Rays. For this 2 p.m. CT airing against Hunter Pence and the virtual Giants, Lucas was looking to even up his record on TV. Like before, this game was pre-recorded and did not occur live.
Giolito entered the game with a strong 7-2 road record, which he was looking to keep improving as he found himself in virtual San Francisco for this baseball game. His lineup rocked the throwback powdered blue jerseys, and real-life Lucas donned his 2019 Players' Weekend jersey.
To begin the afternoon, Hunter Pence asked Giolito if he had ever been thrown out of a game. Pence, already knowing the answer, was looking to grab the inside scoop from Lucas because Pence's at-bat was the cause of Lucas being ejected (a moment that has been photographed for and framed by Giolito). So, here's the story:
In 2017, Giolito pitched seven games for the White Sox, one of which against the Giants. On September 8, Lucas was not getting low strikes called. On a full count to Pence, Lucas threw a strike over the plate, right on the outer third. On the same play, a Giant was attempting to steal a base, but Kevan Smith threw him out. Lucas, assuming it was a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play, turned his head and saw Pence standing on first with a walk. Giolito, reaching his pitch limit, was replaced by a relief pitcher. As he was walking to the dugout, he had some words with the home plate umpire and turned his head as he was about to enter the dugout. Then, he heard the noise of the crowd and turned his head just in time to see the umpire finish the ejection motion of his arm. Giolito stormed to Gabe Morales and had a few choice words, so José Abreu bear-hugged Giolito. Lucas commented on the stream that even though he has the height advantage over Abreu, once Abreu hugs you, there is no escape.
Overall, it was a very funny story, and it was neat to hear Lucas's and Hunter's perspectives. Hunter thought he struck out and was shocked upon earning the walk. To this day, he tells Lucas it should have been a strikeout.
Once the story was over, the game was underway. Giolito had a runner on base and the aforementioned Abreu was in the box, and Pence called for a double play to end the inning, and a double play ended the inning. However, for Pence's half of the first, he had to go against the GOAT, Dallas Keuchel, who pitched around a one-out single and keeping the game scoreless.
Yasmani Grandal just missed a home run to lead off the second inning, and Eloy Jiménez worked a full count and notched a single. However, like the inning prior, a double play ball ended the Sox's half of the inning. On the bright side, Dallas pitched a clean 1-2-3 second.
Hoping to win the game in three innings, Lucas was looking for some offense. However, back-to-back-to-back fly outs ended the inning. Interestingly, each Giants outfielder secured an out.
Aaron Bummer came in to pitch a scoreless third, which was accomplished by back-to-back strikeouts and a ground out. It was time for Lucas's third appearance in extra innings this tournament; he's 1-1 so far.
Giolito and the virtual Sox started a two-out rally with an infield single and an outfield single. Eloy worked another full count, but he flew out to left to end the top of the fourth.
Bummer stayed in to pitch the fourth, and he started the inning by issuing back-to-back walks. Have no fear, Bummer secured the three outs needed to leave the inning unscathed and force a fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth, Nomar Mazara was able to notch a single, but Leury García grounded into a double play to force the Sox to pitch another clean inning. For the third straight inning, Bummer pitched, and as he has been doing in this competition, he recorded three outs and allowed zero runs.
The sixth inning came up, and it felt as if this game would go the full nine. That was until Lucas Giolito pinch-hit with Adam Engel, who bunted for a single. Interestingly enough, virtual Johnny Cueto started the game and remained in the game in the sixth. Hunter Pence didn't even think about removing Cueto until Engel's bunt single and a patient at-bat by Tim Anderson, who was rewarded with a single. At that point, it was time for Cueto to leave, but Lucas was just getting started.
Yoán Moncada smashed a two-RBI double into the left-center gap, and he wound up at third base after a throwing error by the catcher. Up 2-0, Lucas wanted to add an insurance run, so Abreu singled home YoYo, and Cueto was finally taken out of the game. San Francisco's relief got the Giants out of the sixth down 3-0.
Lucas brought in Steve Cishek for the sixth-inning save, and he got the job done by pitching a 1-2-3 inning. With that win, Lucas improved to 15-8 overall, 8-2 on the road, and 1-0 on the day. According to Giolito, this win was his favorite game of the competition.
Pence was super funny, genuine, and kind throughout the game. He has an amazing personality, and he is definitely a favorite player of mine outside of the White Sox. (In case you do not know, Giolito and Anderson are my favorite White Sox players, and Yolmer Sánchez holds a special place in my heart, as he bridges the gap between the Sox and Giants.)
Game 25: St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago White Sox
With the afternoon game out of the way, it was time for Lucas to get started with his two 8 p.m. CT ball games! Matt Carpenter and the virtual Cardinals were the first team on the docket. No surprise, Giolito went with the black-top jerseys and pitched as himself.
Benetti joined the chat, where he and Lucas discussed his afternoon game on ESPN2. Quote of the night from Giolito: "White Sox finally getting some love on ESPN."
With the game underway, Lucas gave up a base hit to start the game, but virtual Lucas and real-life Lucas secured the three outs to escape the inning unscathed. As for the bottom of the first, Anderson led it off with a single, and he moved to third on a YoYo groundout. Grandal, the home run machine in this tournament, hit a two-run shot to right with two outs, so the Sox led 2-0 as they entered the second.
The Giolitos pitched a 1-2-3 inning, and the virtual Sox were looking for some insurance runs, but they could not claim any.
Cishek was appointed for the save, and of course, he got the job done! Lucas improved to 16-8 overall, 2-0 on the day, and 8-6 at home.
Luis Robert almost dropped the last out of the game, so for your second quote of the night from Giolito: "My heart is beating out of my chest!"
Game 26: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland
Carlos Santana and virtual Cleveland were the last scheduled game of the night. As per usual, the black-top jerseys were the uniform of choice. As for the unusual, Michael Kopech received his first start of the tournament!
Death, taxes, and a TA7 leadoff single to open the game. YoYo put runners on first and second, so Pito singled up the middle to load the bases with zero outs. Grandal produced an out, but Eloy came in on the sac fly to make it 1-0. Sox Giolito, who only wanted to send Tim home, had YoYo running to third from second, so he was thrown out to end the inning. Once again, baserunning is Giolito's Achilles heel, but he keeps on working around the mistakes and winning!
Kopech hit Francisco Lindor to open the bottom of the first, but Michael got under control and worked out of the inning without giving up a run.
Leury García singled with two outs in the top of the second, so Edwin Encarnación pinch-hit. EE was first-pitch swinging, and he hit a home run to put the virtual Sox up, 3-0. But the long balls were not done just yet! TA7 hit one to back-to-back, and the YoYo went back-to-back-to-back to put the virtual Sox up 5-0. I'm looking forward to seeing that in real life.
Jimmy Cordero and Aaron Bummer combined to pitch the second and only gave up one run.
I have a third quote of the night from Giolito, with Cordero pitching: "That pitch was nasty. It does not look like a strike at all. We're going to do that again."
Giolito went down 1-2-3 in the third, so it was time to wrap up the win, still up 5-1. Bummer stayed in the game, a given at this point, he notched the win. Giolito and the virtual Sox improved to 17-8 overall, 9-2 on the road, and 3-0 on the day!
Fourth (!) quote of the night from LG27: "Straight fake news," when virtual Abreu didn't body a baseball that ended up going for a base hit in the third.
Game 20 (Postponed): Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Angels
A little surprise for the night: Giolito was able to sneak in the makeup game against Ty Buttrey and the virtual Angels. Going for the perfect night, Giolito put in the GOAT, Keuchel, and he went with the black-top jerseys.
Lucas went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first, as Shohei Ohtani's stuff looks lethal in real life and in video games. DK gave up a leadoff triple due to the outfielders not being able to position correctly. The runner did score, so the virtual Angels took an early 1-0 lead.
Once again, Giolito went down 1-2-3, but DK followed up with a 1-2-3 inning.
Lucas was looking to tie the game with a run and take the lead with two runs. La Pantera hit a bunt single to begin the third inning. Two outs quickly came, but TA7 started a two-out rally when he notched a single to put runners on first and third. Ohtani finally left the game, and with the relievre in, Lucas was first pitch swinging, and he popped out to end the game.
A bummer to end such a perfect night on a loss, as Lucas and the virtual Sox dropped to 17-9 overall, 9-3 on the road, and 3-1 on the day/night.
Afterthoughts
Lucas is still in the playoff picture in sixth place, with a magic number of three to clinch the postseason. With Tommy Kahnle entering the playoff standings, Lucas is 4-3 against his playoff opponents. He has only three games remaining, so a 3-0 record would look really nice and will guarantee a spot in the playoffs. The standings are only getting tighter, but I believe in our ace.
Lucas will play again on Monday, April 27 at 8 p.m. CT. Although he has three games left, he is only scheduled for two: Lance McCullers Jr. and the virtual Houston Astros and Juan Soto and the virtual Washington Nationals. I wonder if Lucas will see ESPN2 for the third time this tournament ...
Giolito streams all of his MLB: The Show Players League games on his Twitch channel: twitch.tv/GeneralGio. All proceeds made off the streams go directly to charity: Orphan Kitten Project. As consistent as Giolito is with using the black-top jerseys, going with Keuchel when he is rested, and pulling out some entertaining quotes, you can expect another Twitter live-tweet from me (@Ashley22Sanders), and I'll have a written recap accompanied with a video for you at South Side Hit Pen on Sports Illustrated.
Let's cheer Lucas on for his three remaining games and get him into the playoffs! The real-life Sox have not seen the playoffs in quite some time, but the virtual Sox and real-life Giolito plan to put and end to that unpleasant streak.