2020 OOTP Sim: White Sox take Detroit, 5-2
DETROIT — Dylan Cease has been a solid strikeout pitcher in his first full year in the majors, but has otherwise been a bit shaky.
But it was good Dylan who showed up to help the White Sox even up this series against lowly Detroit, pitching 6 ⅓ solid innings, with 11 Ks, in a 5-2 Chicago win.
Cease had just five quality starts in 15 so far this year, so the odds off a strong outing weren't great. But the young righthander made it to six, starting off the game strong by striking out the side.
The White Sox, struggling on offense of late, got off to a rocky start once again. However, Chicago slipped and slid into a run in the first through a combination of single, ground out, throwing error, ground out. Keith Curcio scored the first run, ensuring the White Sox would never trail on Tuesday.
The White Sox doubled their lead in the third, after Yoán Moncada’s leadoff single was rewarded with a trip around the bases when José Abreu doubled to the RF corner.
We had Cease with 87 pitches (and 11 Ks) going into the seventh, when he started to show some wear with a lead-off walk to C.J. Cron. That walk came back to haunt when Jonathan Schoop doubled and put the Tigers on the board, trailing 2-1 lead. We said good-bye to Cease and brought out Tony Watson to face Jeimer Candelario, who grounded to third and tied the game.
But the White Sox clapped right back with a strong bottom of the seventh. First, Curcio beat out an infield hit and scored on a double from Yoán. And Eloy finished up the scoring for the day with a homer to left-center (396 feet, for those playing at home) to bring us up 5-2. Fun fact: Eloy is trailing Yoán in the sim season home run race, 22-21.
The White Sox are now sitting 6 ½ back in the division race, at 41-38, and sitting firmly at four back in the wild card race.
NOTES: Yolbert Sánchez’s first MLB at-bat was, sadly, a strikeout — better luck next time, Yolbert (Narrator: he would not, in fact, have better luck next time as he went 0-for-3 for the day).