Somewhere Down the Road...

...this will all come back to haunt the White Sox, the mistake of a manager; the lifeless play by a bunch of Alfred E. Neumans; the trade-deadline acquisitions more skilled in sabotage than baseball. Last night in Detroit, we got a preview of all it will all unfold. With the Sox ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the third and Tigers on the corners, a struggling Carlos Rodon induced Jonathan Schoop to hit a grounder to second base for what could have been a double play. Instead, second baseman Cesar Hernandez tagged baserunner Victor Reyes with the wrong hand—you need the ball in it, Cesar—and then threw late to first. Goodbye two outs, goodbye lead by the end of the inning. Hernandez went 0-for-4 on the night, by the way. Now, fast-forward to the bottom of the eighth, two out nobody on. Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel hit Robbie Grossman on a 1-2 pitch. Detroit employed a tactic unknown to Sox manager Tony La Russa as Grossman stole second base. Undaunted, Kimbrel yielded a run-scoring single to Harold Castro. The Sox go down 1-2-3 in the ninth for a 4-3 loss. The bottom of the Sox order batted in the ninth inning. If in fact this is any kind of magical season for the team, it would’ve been a good time to pinch-hit Jose Abreu; yup, he was resting, even as KC’s Sal Perez took over the RBI lead in both leagues with 115 to Abreu’s 113. Rest is essential for these Sox per their manager’s dictates. Speaking of rest, starter Carlos Rodon may be in line for a whole bunch of it. Rodon barely made it through the third inning and looked to be in some discomfort on the bench. After the game, he refused to talk about his left shoulder, which did little to ease anyone’s concerns. Hindsight is 20-20, they say. We didn’t need Hernandez and Kimbrel. We needed another starting pitcher.