2020 OOTP sim: Giolito dominates Detroit, South Siders win 2-1
CHICAGO — The White Sox's bats went cold today, so they needed a big performance from ace Lucas Giolito. Sure enough, Giolito delivered the masterpiece they needed, and the White Sox went on to win by a score of 2-1.
Squaring up against Giolito on the mound was rookie right-hander Casey Mize, who the Tigers selected with the first overall pick in the 2018 draft. Like Giolito, Mize was an elite prospect, as MLB Pipeline ranked him No. 7 among all prospects in its preseason rankings this year.
The White Sox struck first, as they got on the board in the bottom of the first inning in front of an unusually large crowd of 40,532. To get that first run, however, the White Sox needed some help from the Tigers defense. Eloy Jiménez reached base on an error by shortstop Niko Goodrum. Then, with two outs and a runner on second, José Abreu delivered some timely hitting with an RBI single.
The score remained 1-0 until the top of the fourth, when the Tigers finally made a little bit of noise against Giolito. Jonathan Schoop started the rally with a single, and Giolito made one of his few mistakes when he hit C.J. Cron on an 0-2 pitch. That put runners on first and second, and Jeimer Candelario hit an RBI single to tie the game 1-1.
After a few quiet innings, the White Sox threatened to get back on the board in the fifth, when Yolbert Sánchez led off with a single. This was his first hit in the majors, so congratulations to Sánchez, who received the ball. With one out, Jiménez launched a double off the wall do put runners on second and third. Still with one out, Edwin Encarnación drew a walk to load the bases. However, the White Sox could not take advantage of the scoring opportunity, as Abreu popped out, and Nick Madrigal lined out to center to end the threat.
In the seventh, yet another scoring opportunity was started by a Sánchez leadoff single. After Yoán Moncada singled, the White Sox had runners on the corners with no outs. This time, they managed to score the go-ahead run, as Encarnación hit a fly ball that was deep enough to get Sánchez in from third.
Meanwhile, Giolito was excellent. In 7 ⅓ innings, he allowed only one run on three hits, and issued just one walk while striking out eight. This masterful performance lowered Giolito's ERA to a sparkling 2.37.
Reliever Pat Venditte was perfect, as he made sure that the Tigers could not claw their way back in the latter part of the game. Venditte set down all five Tigers he faced, striking out two of them. As a result, the White Sox held on to win by a score of 2-1.
The White Sox are now 42-38, while the Tigers fell to an abysmal 29-51. Dallas Keuchel (5-6, 3.74 ERA) will take on Daniel Norris (3-3, 4.44 ERA) on Thursday, and Colleen Sullivan will have your coverage for that matchup.
Joe graduated in 2018 with a degree in economic consulting from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, also minoring in Japanese and studying abroad in Nagoya for a semester. He grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, but moved to Indianapolis after graduation. The White Sox are his favorite team in all of sports, and he considers it a blessing to have the opportunity to write about them on this great platform. He squeaked by with the 2018 #SoxMath championship despite intense competition from colleague Ashley Sanders — then repeated the title in 2019. That experience helped put him on the map, as he started contributing to South Side Sox shortly afterward. Joe looks forward to delivering all sorts of content about our team.