Better than Renteria?

Yesterday in Detroit, White Sox manager Tony La Russa showed once again that he’s long past his freshness date. Start with his pitching moves. The Sox were comfortably ahead by a score of 8-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Miguel Cabrera first up. And who does La Russa bring in but Mike Wright Jr. Cabrera doubled, probably a triple for anyone with younger legs. Instead of gathering himself, Wright proceeded to walk the next batter and hit the one after that. Exit Mike Wright. And in came Garrett Crochet, ordinarily a solid choice. But Crochet looked absolutely gassed from the onset, maybe because he pitched the day before in Cleveland. Whatever the case (and did anyone in the bullpen notice something amiss during warmup pitches?), Crochet allowed all of Wright’s baserunners to score plus two of his own. End of eight innings, Chicago 8 Detroit 7, which also turned out to be the final score. Exhibit two, La Russa’s reaction to Jose Abreu getting hit for the 21st time, this in the top of the ninth inning. Abreu went old school, going hard into second base when the ball got away from catcher Eric Haase with Yasmani Grandal up. Abreu said something to shortstop Niko Goodrum, and benches cleared. Then La Russa had to open his mouth in the postgame. “There’s an unfairness there that upsets me,” he was quoted on the team website about the recent series with the Angels that saw three Sox batters get drilled in addition to Abreu yesterday. Here’s the thing—this is the same manager who absolved Twins’ pitcher Tyler Duffey for nailing Yermin Mercedes, who committed the sin of disrespecting one of the unwritten rules of baseball that have been entrusted to Tony La Russa for safekeeping. La Russa may be old, but he’s certainly not old school. Back in the day, they throw at yours, you immediately throw at theirs. You don’t wait until the last month of the season to start retaliating.