Torture By Any Other Name

The sad joke that is the 2022 White Sox added a new chapter in Baltimore last night, when closer Liam Hendriks gave up a game-tying homerun on an 0-2 pitch with two outs. Wait, there’s more. Kyle Stowers was hitting .130 before he connected on his first career homerun. Wait, there’s more. Two pitches earlier, Adam Engel dropped a foul fly by Stowers for what would’ve been the third out in a Sox victory. Wait, there’s more. The game went eleven innings before the Sox could find a way to lose, 4-3; bringing in Jake Diekman sure helped, though. The acquisition of Diekman ranks right up there with Jeff Smardzija and James Shields as reasons to show Rick Hahn the door. But back to the game. In the tenth and eleventh, the Sox had six chances to score the runner from second. And what did they do? Tenth inning—flyout, flyout, strikeout. Eleventh inning—strikeout, pop out, groundout. Luis Robert was responsible for that strikeout in the eleventh, part of an 0-for-5 night with two double plays and five runners left on base. Situational hitting as taught by Frank Menechino, no doubt. That, or “manager” Tony La Russa screwed up bigtime with his star center fielder, who for the past two games has taken to swinging with one hand during some of his at-bats. Rest Robert’s legs while risking injury to his left wrist? Like I said, a sad joke. The postgame went according to script, with Engel and Hendriks taking responsibility for the loss while their “manager” said in effect no one was to blame. “Not anything wrong with the way we played today,” Tony La Russa told reporters [story on team website today]. “Just got beat.” No, Tony. Your players screwed up, and you probably did, too, yet again.