2020 OOTP sim: White Sox punch Wahoos in the mouth, 8-6
CHICAGO — In the rain and wind, the White Sox prevailed through a wild start to a series key to playoff aspirations.
And the South Siders, as they have through nine games vs. first-place Minnesota, handed the AL Central's other first-place club a setback on Tuesday.
Powered by a four-run fifth putting them ahead for good, the White Sox used hits both big (a thawing José Abreu with a bases-loaded, two-run single) and small (a suicide squeeze by Luis Robert that scored Nick Madrigal to give the Good Guys their first lead of the game) to spank the relentless Clevelanders.
Prominent in a surprisingly potent Wahoos lineup is Francisco Lindor, the MVP frontrunner through two months. Lindor had another two hits on Tuesday to push his average to .382 — but struck out against Evan Marshall in a key Cleveland comeback inning in the sixth, extinguishing the frame with the White Sox still ahead, 5-4.
Two White Sox clubbers had a pair of solo homers apiece: Eloy Jiménez (first and eighth innings, twice getting balls up into the jet stream of 18 mph gusts to left, in scenes not unlike his first homers last season in the Bronx) and Zack Collins (sixth and eighth, the latter a 445-foot missile).
The Eloy and Zack homers in the eighth proved key, as Cleveland nabbed two runs on a Franmil Reyes two-run shot in the top of the ninth.
Dallas Keuchel didn't have a strong outing, but he was largely backed by some killer relief. Marshall's heroics have already been counted, but Tony Watson came on in relief of struggling Steve Cishek in the eighth, walking Jordan Luplow and then staunching a rally with a Greg Allen 6-4-3 double play.
And when Watson had trouble finishing the game in the ninth, Alex Colomé came on to coax a 5-4-3 double play from Domingo Santana to end the game and earn his eighth save.
The White Sox attempt to secure the series early with Michael Kopech on the bump (0-2, 4.58 ERA) against Aaron Civale (6-4, 4.27). Ashley Sanders will have your Wednesday, pre-draft game coverage.
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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