2020 OOTP sim: YoYo rakes, and the Sox take series over first-place Twins

Have a game, Yoán Moncada!

CHICAGO — With the series tied at one, today's rubber match featured Minnesota's Kenta Maeda (7-2, 3.00 ERA) and Chicago White Sox's Gio González (4-2, 4.50 ERA). 

To begin the game, Gio struck out two batters, and leading off the second inning, he fanned Miguel Sanó, who already had struck out for the 88th time. So on the pitching side, Gio was rolling through three innings: 34 pitches and three strikeouts.

Chicago's offense came to life in the bottom of the third. With one out, Nick Madrigal singled and stole second. Leury García walked, and Yoán Moncada, who was first-pitch swinging, sent a baseball to the right-field stands to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.

The Twins tried to rally for some runs of their own in the fourth, but González was able to work around two singles and a wild pitch to keep the Twins scoreless through four.

Minnesota's offense tried to burst through again in the fifth, but with one out and the bases loaded, Luis Arráez hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

For the third straight frame, the Twins had a rally going in the sixth. With two outs and runners on first and second, Max Kepler —Minnesota's hottest hitter — struck out.

Fourth time's the charm, right? In the seventh inning, the Twins finally found their run-producing offense. Gio gave up a walk and a base hit, so Kelvin Herrera relieved him. Two outs later, Nelson Cruz tallied a two-RBI single, which chipped the Sox lead to 3-2.

Have no fear, an insurance run is here! YoYo absolutely obliterated a baseball 498 feet to the right-center stands. The Fun Police, Sergio Romo, heckled Moncada because he took too long admiring the hit. If I hit a baseball two feet shy of 500 12-inches, I would stand at home plate and admire that hit for the rest of my life. 

Romo, possibly distracted or maybe just a little embarrassed, ended up injuring his leg on the last pitch of the inning to Eloy Jiménez.

Beef with Minnesota, who've been spanked seven times in nine tries vs. the White Sox? ESTABLISHED.

Alex Colomé cruised through an easy, breezy 1-2-3 ninth to secure the save and series win! 

YoYo, after driving in all four runs of the game via two home runs, was undoubtedly the player of the game. He leads the team with 14 home runs, and his batting average is .300 again.

The Sox now sit six games behind Minnesota for first place in the AL Central and 1 ½ games out of the wild card. 

The offense is finding its stride, but this recent success can be attributed to the outstanding pitching. In fact, the Sox's pitching is arguably the best in the MLB.

Ah, an 8-2 record in the last ten games, six games out of first, and a 31-28 record!

Seven batters with a .250 BA or better? Yes, please!

Pitchers are athletes too, and dang, are they fantastic ones at that!

The sky is the limit! Let's keep improving the offense; pitching, you keep doing you!