Phenomenal

If White Sox manager Pedro Grifol could declare Lance Lynn’s mediocre outing on Thursday to be “phenomenal,” what would he call last night’s 7-4 loss to the A’s? I have a few choice words, but noting fit for polite company. Grifol’s decision to stick with two pitchers was definitely worthy of comment. Starter Tanner Banks had nothing, as evidenced by his giving up four runs in the bottom of the second to the worst-hitting team in all of baseball. So it goes for a team that can’t develop pitching and its patch—Mike Clevinger—goes down with a sore right bicep. Oh, and it looks like Michael Kopech will miss a turn because the team wants to manage his workload. Yeah, that’ll help. Did I mention that, going into the eighth inning, the Sox offense had scored all of one run against the worst pitching staff in all of baseball? Yup. Then, with two outs and the bases loaded, Andrew Benintendi doubled off the right field wall, only Elvis Andrus, the runner on first, didn’t score; Andrus kept looking over his shoulder, which slowed him down considerably. And all this time I thought runners are off and running as soon as a ball is hit with two outs. Silly me. That third run would’ve made the score 5-4, which might have led Grifol not to send Jesse Scholtens out for a fourth inning. But out Scholtens went, only to give up two runs to the worst-hitting team in all of baseball. Of course, Andrus’ baserunning mistake would’ve been negated had Tim Anderson come through after Benintendi, with runners in scoring position. Nope. Anderson struck out for the fourth time in the game, all against the team with the worst pitching staff in all of baseball. But nothing wrong with the erstwhile minister of fun. He’ll have it figured out any day now. With the game tied, Luis Robert Jr.’s homerun leading off the ninth would’ve give the Sox the lead. Instead, they lost by three, to the worst team in all of baseball. Phenomenal.