Short and Sour

The White Sox lost again last night, 6-5 to the Twins on a walk-off single from Alex Kirilloff, who’d struck out in his previous four at-bats. The bullpen gave up two runs in the eighth and another two in the ninth. By all means place some of the blame on Michael Kopech—did the ball Trevor Larnach hit come down yet?—and Steven Wilson, but let’s not forget catcher Martin Maldonado. Either pitchers aren’t throwing what he’s calling; he’s calling the wrong pitches; or both. I’ll take door number three. The faith that manager Mickey Mouse has in Maldonado is nothing short of mystifying. Maldonado has two hits in 42 at-bats across sixteen games; that comes out to a .048 BA, by the way. Danny Mendick is 4-for-9 in two games since being called up, in case you want to compare apples to spent catchers. The Sox record now stands at 3-20. Go flush and learn, right, Skip?