Slipping into Darkness

God, this is hard. The Chicago sports media hates White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, for good reason, I might add. But the abysmal play of his team allows the media to go full out in pushing extreme scenarios—Mickey Mouse stays as manager all year, Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. get traded or should get traded at the deadline. And now we have rookie starting pitcher Drew Thorpe. Who had himself a solid debut, going five innings, yielding two runs (one earned). The 23-year old righty gave up three hits and two walks while striking out four. I read somewhere that Thorpe has a violent windup that doesn’t produce an upper-90s’ fastball. What I saw was someone who could locate the ball in the strike zone and looked awfully confident out there. Thorpe left with a 3-2 lead; it should’ve been 3-1, not that it mattered. Nope, the Sox bullpen gave up three runs in the seventh for a 4-3 loss and 17-51 record on the season. John Brebbia got the loss. Why is he even pitching? Brebbia has appeared in 27 games. His 24 innings pitched translates into an 0-4 record and 6.38 ERA. He’s appeared in six games in June, last night being the only time this month he’s given up a run. All those scoreless appearances and he still has an ERA well over six. Again, why is he pitching? And why is Mouse managing? I know he’s not really managing, but, still, it’s a title of some importance. Here’s what he told reporters after the game: “It was a good ballgame, but this is probably game No. 25 where we’ve had the lead [and lost]. We’ve got to close these games out. We’ve got to find ways to do it.” [quote in story today on team website] A real manager would’ve done that long ago. And I try not to despair.