2020 OOTP sim: More wins made easy
CHICAGO — One caveat to the White Sox and their near-.500 play in the first two months of the season: They've yet to dig into the tasty buffet that the hapless Detroit Tigers provide.
Chicago made it two wins in two outings against the toothless, last-place Bengals, running up a 9-4 win on the strength of a José Abreu grand slam, shoddy Detroit D, and outstanding pitching.
After falling behind by a run in the fourth, the White Sox struck for two in their half via an Eloy Jiménez two-run shot.
And an inning later, the floodgates opened. Tim Anderson and Yasiel Puig singled to open the frame, and a Yasmani Grandal 6-4-3 double play was undone by a bobble from shortstop Niko Goodrum. After a Nick Madrigal walk packed the sacks with the White Sox up, 3-1, Yoán Moncada hit a sac fly to make it 4-1 and Eloy singled on 0-2 to put the White Sox up, 5-1.
That spelled the end for Detroit starter Matthew Boyd. But Jordan Zimmermann, on for some long relief, got bit by Goodrum as well, as he dropped the third out of the inning, a flare to short left from Edwin Encarnación. Sacks re-packed, Abreu put the game out of reach with his second homer of the season and second in two days. The grand slam to left-center put the White Sox up, 9-1, and allowed a downshift to cruising speed the rest of the way.
That speed suited Lucas Giolito just fine, as he was headed toward a complete game before Moncada bobbled a pair of balls for errors in the ninth, triggering a mini-rally from the battered Detroit troops. Tony Watson came in with two outs remaining and K'd both the batters he faced.
The White Sox go for the sweep on Sunday with Dylan Cease on the bump, as Detroit continues to cure what ails the South Siders.
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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