It Figures

Yesterday in Detroit, Lucas Giolito mowed down the Tigers for four shutout innings, giving up but one hit and two walks against six strikeouts. This is where I need to point out that the de facto ace of the White Sox staff reported to camp twenty pounds heavier, all muscle. Well, that new muscle may have contributed to a tug the 27-year old felt on his left side. Giolito left the game with a 3-0 lead. It was 3-1 in the eighth when lefthander Aaron Bummer entered the game. This is where I need to note the Sox either need a better catcher or someone to take Bummer’s place. As a lefty out of the pen, you can’t walk lefthanded batters, as Bummer did Austin Meadows, and you can’t leave the ball over the plate, or off-speed and away, to righthanders the way Bummer did to Robbie Grossman and Javy Baez. Note to catcher Yasmani Grandal and pitching coach Ethan Katz—Bummer’s breaking stuff has to go inside to righties, or he’s useless. And here’s a note to manager Tony LaRussa: Anyone who’s played Strat-o-Matic baseball knows to make defensive changes in the ninth inning. New Sox right fielder A.J. Pollack had played all of six games in right over his ten-year career, so why was he out there to start the bottom of the ninth? Pollock has one gold glove as a left fielder, so why didn’t he take Eloy Jimenez’s place with Adam Engel coming in to play right? Engel makes the catch on a ball that went off Pollock’s glove, and the game goes into extra innings. As far as I can tell, nobody asked LaRussa why Engel wasn’t out there. Figures.