Revert to Mean

Last night, for the third straight game against the Astros, the White Sox mounted an eighth-inning rally with two runners on, one out, Yoan Moncada and Yasmani Grandal up in a one-run game. Not this time, folks. Moncada made like a statue on a 2-2 count to get rung up while Grandal swung at ball four, popping up to the catcher. Sox lose, 3-2. How I wish they’d stop playing dumb baseball. See above, and below. Starter Michael Kopech couldn’t be bothered to focus on Jose Altuve, the first batter of the game. No, Kopech walked Altuve on four pitches. Then, he couldn’t deliver a clean throw to second base, where Altuve would’ve been out by a couple of feet trying to steal. Then, Kopech let Altuve steal third. Then, Kopech gave up a sacrifice fly. Houston’s first run provided the margin of difference between a chance at victory and defeat. And, as ever, there’s Tony La Russa, aka the liability in the dugout. Josh Harrison batted in the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded, one run in and nobody out in what was now a 3-1 game. Harrison has looked good the past two nights, either in the field or at bat. On top of that, he tends to be overaggressive swinging, which is not a good thing against a groundball pitcher like Framber Valdez. Back in the day, Casey Stengel would’ve pinch hit, fourth inning be damned. Me, I’d think long and hard about a squeeze. La Russa let Harrison swing away into a double play. Maybe our HOF manager was distracted, what with his claiming credit for a recent team meeting and all. Seems like several players got together last week to talk about the state of affairs on the South Side. Not only did La Russa say it was his idea, he said he got it before Johnny Cueto went public with his show-some-fire challenge. Right, and I am the walrus.