2020 OOTP sim: heartbreak city
CHICAGO — On a rainy night with the thermometer hitting 60 at first pitch and falling, the White Sox opened a homestand forcing fans to sit through four hours of ultimately crushing baseball.
After Yasmani Grandal's one-out, two-run homer capped a three-run rally to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, Evan Marshall and Alex Colomé both surrendered gopher balls in the 11th to set the White Sox back, 6-4.
Ninth-place Blue Jays hitter Derek Fisher was the hero for the visitors, going 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs. His titanic, 453-foot blast with two outs in the sixth put Toronto up, 3-1, and drove Gio González from the box. Fisher drove in the first five Toronto runs, before Lourdes Gurriel Jr. slapped the cherry on top out of the park off of Colomé in the 11th.
González had a rough night, starting out gangbusters (three Ks in the first, six of his first seven outs as whiffs) but ending with three runs and six walks on his final tally.
Luis Robert gave the White Sox their first and only lead, leading off the third inning with a 390-foot homer to left-center, giving him his seventh bomb and a share of the team lead with Yoán Moncada.
Besides the Grandal and Robert homers, the White Sox mustered just three singles, striking out 14 times in the game.
NOTES: Rumors were again circulating postgame about a deal that could send James McCann to a contender for prospects ... Zack Collins has a .992 OPS in 10 games down at Charlotte and is thought to be forcing his way back up to Chicago for good ... the White Sox are also faced with a decision on whether or not to reinstate or release Kelvin Herrera before Friday's game.
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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