Virtual Baseball: Chicago No-Sox Foil Yanks, Tanaka

From HoraceClarke66...

Thinking they had already navigated the worst of the postseason shoals against Tampa Bay, your virtual New York Yankees came acropper against the Sockless Chicagoans in Game One of the ALCS, losing 6-1. 

Starter Masahiro Tanaka turned in another gutsy effort—is there really any other kind of Tanaka effort?—but still trailed by 2-1, when he left the game after six innings. All Tanaka had surrendered was a two-run homer to the Rainbow Sockless’ splendid third baseman, Yoan Moncada, but that was enough.

 

Chicago starter Dallas Keuchel reduced Yankee Stadium to silence for most of his seven innings of work, allowing only a solo homer to Aaron Judge. Close as the game was late, it got a lot less close in a hurry, when Adam Ottavino surrendered a two-run triple to Moncada, who then scored on a sacrifice fly. 

 

The game took yet another poor turn for the Yanks, when catcher Gary Sanchez, backing up to catch the throw home from Aaron Hicks, tripped over a stray bat and went tumbling head over heels. His condition is a secret guarded more closely than the nuclear codes, but manager Ma Boone implied that back-up receiver Kyle Higashioka might be taking his place in Game Two.

 

“Well, that was a tough game for us,” Boone said afterwards, noting how many fans left after that calamitous seventh inning. “And where did all the fans go? I mean, from the crowd noise we might as well have been playing in San Diego!”