Put Up or Shut Up

The White Sox put on a Tony Award-winning performance at Yankee Stadium over the weekend as perfect patsies. Too bad that won’t get them any postseason awards. Sunday in the Bronx, Sox rookie Andrew Vaughn redeemed himself with a top-of-the-ninth, one-out game-tying homerun against New York closer Aroldis Chapman, this coming off the bench, no less. In Vaughn’s previous at-bat against Chapman, he grounded into a triple play. The homer represented the first run Chapman has given up this season in nineteen appearances. But it wasn’t enough for our big talkers in March. Dallas Keuchel couldn’t get through the fifth inning and couldn’t field his position; the two unearned runs he let in turn a possible 4-3 win into a sure 5-4 loss. Not that Aaron Bummer, Tim Anderson or Liam Hendriks helped any. Mr. Perfect Bullpen sandwiched two singles around a walk before yielding to Hendriks, who’s earning an awful lot of money to walk in the winning run. And Anderson? The Minister of Fun threw the ball away trying to turn a double play, good for a third unearned run. All I know is, if you talk the talk in March, you better walk the walk in late May at Yankee Stadium. Otherwise, you look stupid. Leadership is going to count even more among these players given that Tony La Russa, their future ex-manager, refuses to hold them accountable for bad baseball, Yermin Mercedes excepted, that is. The more I hear La Russa say things like “Right now, I’m hurting for our club (team website today),” the more I miss Rick Renteria. Now, there’s an odd turn of events.