White Sox sim roundup: April 28-29

The Out of the Park sim we started at South Side Sox is running over with Brett and his team at South Side Hit Pen — Sports Illustrated.

Well, the White Sox won both games at the Rockies, at least according to the MLB the Show sim being run at SBN’s Purple Row. But what about the sims that “really” count, the ones we’ve been tracking here this season ...

Well ... the White Sox did not have a perfect record in Denver. Unless one win is perfect?

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Baseball-Reference OOTP sim

April 28 Final Rockies 6, White Sox 5
Winning Pitcher Jairo Diaz (1-0)
Losing Pitcher Aaron Bummer (0-2)
HRs Eloy Jiménez 2 (7,8), Yoán Moncada (10), Trevor Story (10)

April 29 Final Rockies 6, White Sox 5
Winning Pitcher Carlos Estevez (2-0)
Losing Pitcher Aaron Bummer (0-3)
HRs Lucas Giolito (1), Yasmani Grandal (8), Nomar Mazara (9), Danny Mendick (1)

Standings 18-13, second place, one game behind Cleveland, tied for eighth-best record in baseball

When we started these sim roundups, roughly two weeks (?) ago, Eloy had ... zero home runs. And to give you another idea of how crazy these sims can be, Colorado entered this series 16-11, when in the other OOTP series (South Side Hit Pen’s, below) the Rockies entered 6-21. Anyway, despite some dogged late scoring from the White Sox (four runs in the last three innings, including a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth by Moncada), the White Sox lost the opener due to some awful defense in the ninth. Bummer made an error that put runners on first and second, Yasmani Grandal had a passed ball that moved them up to second and third, and, whoosh, a game-winning, two-run single from, ugh, Daniel Murphy.

Game 2 played out much the same, as the White Sox took the lead in the ninth on a Mazara home run to lead off, and one out later Mendick and Edwin Encarnación singles created a golden opportunity for a crooked number, but Moncada and José Abreu whiffed to end the threat. In the Rockies half, Bummer walked the bases loaded, then Michael Kopech came on to surrender the game-winning double to, ugh, Murphy.

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South Side Hit Pen OOTP sim

April 28 Final Rockies 8, White Sox 7
Winning Pitcher Scott Oberg (2-2)
Losing Pitcher Carson Fulmer (2-2)
Save Jairo Diaz (3)
HRs Yasmani Grandal 2 (2,3), Brendan Rogers (1), Ian Desmond (2)

April 29 Final Rockies 8, White Sox 2
Winning Pitcher Kyle Freeland (1-4)
Losing Pitcher Michael Kopech (0-1)
HRs Garrett Hampson 2 (2,3)

Standings 15-16, third place, four games behind Minnesota, 13th-best in the majors

Now, if you thought the OOTP sims above, at B-R, were painful, sitaspell, take your shoes off. A coming-out party for Grandal (entering the game hitting .111), whose two, two-run shots staked the Sox to a 5-2 lead. But the bounty was squandered, and in both the seventh (bases loaded, one out) and ninth (bases loaded, none out) the White Sox failed to execute offensively. Wait, they did execute ... offensively.

The finale was a debacle. The White Sox were up, 1-0, in the first when Keuchel’s first pitch was sent into the stands, evening the score. Kid Keuchy’s next pitch hit Trevor Story, and a brawl ensued. Keuchel ended up with an ugly shiner, and a six-game suspension. And the White Sox went downhill from there, back under .500 for the season.

April 28 Sports Illustrated writeup
April 29 Sports Illustrated writeup

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Strat-o-Matic sim

April 28 Final White Sox 6, Rockies 4
Winning Pitcher Lucas Giolito (1-3)
Losing Pitcher Chi Chi González (2-1)
Save Alex Colomé (6)
HRs Tim Anderson (4), David Dahl (2), Daniel Murphy (4)

April 29 Final Rockies 6, White Sox 5 (11 innings)
Winning Pitcher Scott Oberg (2-1)
Losing Pitcher Jimmy Cordero (0-1)

Standings 12-19, fourth place, seven games behind Minnesota, tied for fifth-worst record in baseball

It’s no shock that the White Sox are among the worst teams in SoM’s 2020 season, what with Giolito earning his first win all the way at the end of April — and even then, with only an OK performance: five innings, two runs (both off solo shots), four Ks. The win chiseled the ace’s ERA all the way down ... to 6.14. The White Sox put this one away with five runs in the sixth, courtesy of four base hits. The offense mustered just two more hits the entire game; two errors helped explain the Colorado loss despite 10 hits. Colorado was also 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

The White Sox were denied the mini-sweep, as Colorado used two hits and a walk to load the bases in the 11th, and unless you were the White Sox in the SSHP OOTP sim, that’s a surefire recipe for a loss. Sam Hilliard provided the misery, with a base hit.