Riding a five-game win streak, the White Sox faced a big challenge against Milwaukee and their 27-year old ace Brandon Woodruff. Tonight’s contest featured two marquee pitchers who lived up to their billing, as they left the game 2-2 after six innings. Chicago yet again came from behind, as an Eloy homer and Abreu single put Chicago ahead for good to extend the winning streak to six games.
Aaron Bummer, Jimmy Cordero, and Alex Colome pitched three shutout innings, continuing the dominance of the White Sox bullpen. Ben Gamel knocked in both runs for the Brewers on a 2-run bomb. Sadly, Nick Madrigal and Edwin Encarnacion both suffered unspecified shoulder injuries in the victory.
W: Lucas Giolito (1-1) | L: Devin Williams (0-1) | SV: Alex Colome (3)
Notable Performances
Eloy Jimenez: 3-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Immediately after the Sox fell down two in the fifth inning, Eloy brought Chicago back into it with a blast off Woodruff. Although his other two hits were softly-hit singles, it was a super productive night for the Dominican.
ELOY WITH A NUKE pic.twitter.com/Ma3fnLgMM0
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) August 5, 2020
Lucas Giolito: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K
Giolito definitely labored through parts of the night. But, in true ace fashion, he limited the damage to the tune of a quality start. He started the game with some fastball command issues, but quickly settled down. Throughout the course of the evening Giolito yielded just four hard-hit balls, and culminated his outing by striking out the side.
Other Notables:
Luis Robert reached base three times and recorded another steal, raising his batting average to a team-leading .364 in the process. He has some work to do with strikeouts, but looks like a star regardless.
Moment of the Game
One of these days Alex Colome will give me a legitimate heart attack, and I will remember no moments from the game. But I digress. Although Eloy’s mammoth blast resulted in two runs, the Sox still had work to do after it. Jose Abreu came through an inning later, driving in the game’s winning run in the sixth inning. Last year’s AL RBI leader continues to be a clutch performer.
Jose Abreu silencing the haters day in and day out
— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) August 5, 2020
Player of the Game
I’ll go with Eloy Jimenez here, as he reached base three times to go with the center-field bomb. Obviously it’s pretty early in the season, but Jimenez has seemed to pick up where he left off last year. The 23-year old is proving himself to be a solid middle-of-the-order bat on the south side.
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow at 7:10 pm CT, these teams will travel south to Chicago to begin the remaining half of their season series. Dallas Keuchel (2-0, 3.38 ERA) squares off with Adrian Houser (0-0, 1.80 ERA) on NBC Sports Chicago at 7:10 pm CT.
How about the idea of playing Anderson in right field. He has the tools needed to be a great right fielder…..he is fast and has a strong arm. I think Garcia is a better defensive shortstop and consistently makes the routine plays at short. Just my opinion. It would fill the gaping hole in right field long term with Anderson there.