Matchups

The White Sox lost in Cleveland, again, on a walk-off homerun, again, this time by Jordan Luplow off Gio Gonzalez in the bottom of the ninth. Sox manager Rick Renteria was quoted on the team website, saying after the game, “It’s tough, it’s tough. I’m not going to lie because we’re still trying to continue to move forward.” Coulda’ fooled me. Maybe Renteria was looking at Luplow’s .190 BA or career .193 mark against righties, in which case, shame on him. First, Luplow was batting .278 on his career against lefties. Second, lefty-reliever Gonzalez hasn’t exactly been fooling people; right-handed batters were hitting .310 against him coming in. Third, of Luplow’s 22 career homeruns, 17 were off of lefties and six were against the White Sox. Shades of Ryan Raburn there, my friends. Did Renteria know any of that? If not, why not? Isn’t that what bench coaches are for? And, if he did know, why not switch to a rightie and force Cleveland’s hand? I mean, if it’s all about moving forward.