2020 OOTP sim: Second verse, same as the first
CHICAGO — A pattern is emerging with this 2020 White Sox season.
Starting pitching is usually working through traffic for much of a short start. The bullpen is often heroic. Defense has been, with the exception of third, short and catcher, very solid. And the offense? Well, it hasn't been as creative or nuanced as we'd like, and slumps have pockmarked the lineup.
All but the bullpen showed up on Saturday, as the White Sox dropped a game they were never really in to Toronto, 5-2.
Most notable in the game was the Kelvin Herrera seventh inning, which took a 3-1 game and turned it 5-1 after a two-out single and then a bomb to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
But the White Sox, as has been the case often this season, had a last gasp at revenge. In the bottom of the eighth, Yoán Moncada clocked his team-high eighth homer of the season with one out. The South Siders rallied to load the bases, still with just one out, but a weak pop to left from the struggling Yasmani Grandal and a Yasiel Puig strikeout left food on the table.
The White Sox will attempt to salvage a split in the series by sending out the perfect record-but-imperfect ERA Reynaldo López against scuffling Matt Shoemaker.
NOTES: After the game, Herrera was DFAd for the third and final time. Evanston's Christian Friedrich (0-2, two saves, five walks, 30 strikeouts, 1.71 ERA at Birmingham and Charlotte), a 32-year-old converted starter, was promoted from the Knights.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.
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