Say What?

In Friday night’s win against the Marlins, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson fielded a ball with the infield in and threw out Jorge Soler trying to score from third. Manager Pedro Grifol called it “a hell of a play.” In truth, it’s the kind of play you’d expect from a major-league shortstop. Yesterday, the Sox again played the infield in, this time in the top of the ninth while clinging to a 1-0 lead. Bases loaded, nobody out. The ball again went to Anderson, who bobbled it, thus opening the floodgates for what turned into a 5-1 loss. By my count, that’s the third time this season Anderson has muffed a ball with the infield in. Grifol bent so far backwards after the game in his defense of Anderson that he said the ball had all sorts of left-handed spin on it, only the Marlins’ Bryan De La Cruz, who hit it, bats righthanded. To his credit, Anderson took the blame for not making the play. If Grifol doesn’t want to call out his players in public, fine. But showering them with unearned praise is little different than handing out participation awards the way they do in T-ball. I thought this was supposed to be the big leagues.