Says It All

The headline in today Tribune sports’ section—top of the fold, no less—says it all: Sox squander late lead, fall to 19 under .500. And here I thought the Mickey Mouse Club was all about fun. But where’s the fun with Kendall Graveman blowing a 3-0 lead in the ninth inning? That’s misery plain and simple, as well as a sign of just how bad this team is. The Sox delayed the inevitable until two out in the bottom of the twelfth, when Ryan Jeffers walked it off for the Twins with a single off of Jesse Scholtens. Manager Mouse plays by a different set of rules than most baseball people do. He uses contact pitchers in extra innings, even thought an inning starts with a runner on second and nobody out. Not that Sox hitters can take advantage. Unwritten rule left over from Tony La Russa—don’t try to bunt runners over until there’s one out. After the game, Mouse told reporters, “We’ve got to find a way to have that killer mentality to where we’re going to put people away, put teams away.” Excuse me, Mickey, but you’re four months into the season. If you haven’t found that mentality, it’s not there. Wait, there’s more. Mouse also said, “When you do a good job of pitching and you do a good job of manufacturing some runs and put yourself in a position to win and then you lose it, they sting. That’s just a part of it.” [both quotes in today’s Tribune] Part of what, a terrible season the result of an incompetent front office hiring an equally incompetent manager and coaching staff? In that case, right you are.