Virtual Baseball: Cole Train Runs a Day Late But Not an Inning Short! Yanks Nip ChiSox, 2-1, Fight Way Back into Series

From the desk of HoraceClarke66  

Benefiting from a little added rest, thanks to the virtual rains that swept virtual Chicago yesterday, Gerrit Cole got the Yankees back on the right track at FlipPhone Field.

 

Cole pitched his astonishing sixth complete game of the season, counting the playoffs. He struck out 13, only walked one, and surrendered just four hits—one of them a home run by Chicago slugger Jose Abreu that got the Pale Hose to within one tally in the sixth inning.

 

The Yanks had sprung out to an early lead when D.J. LeMahieu drove in Higahioka with a single, and when Aaron Judge hit one of his now trademark, opposite-field home runs. But the Chicagoans got a well-pitched game from surprise starter Matt Foster, who fanned 10 in just six innings.

 

It all came down to a wild ninth inning, when with two out, Chicago loaded the bases on two errors by Gleyber Torres and a walk. To the surprise of many, though, Yankees closer Aroldis “Machine Gun” Chapman did not even get up, with Zach(k) Britton warming instead.

 

“Britty was just the guy I was looking for there. The match-ups worked,” Ma Boone told the press, denying there was any truth to the rumors that Chapman’s left hand, frozen into a strange shape that gave his tosses almost Mariano-like movement on the ball…had begun to melt.

 

Whatever the case, it was Ol’ King Cole who sent the Chicago faithful home unhappy when—just a single pitch from issuing the walk that would have tied the game—he zipped a fastball past the promising young White Stockings third sacker, Yoan “Slowly Turn” Moncada.

 

“We’re right back in it,” Cole exulted afterwards. “Nothing can stop us now! To hell with the juju gods!”