Happy Endings

This is why I love baseball. Yesterday, the White Sox were shut out for eight innings at Fenway Park, when Jake Burger opened the ninth with a walk. Adam Engel, 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, then doubled down the third baseline to put runners in scoring position. Leury Garcia (!) tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Wait, there’s more. Manager Tony La Russa, being Tony La Russa, sent reliever Reynaldo Lopez out for a second inning of work. Lopez, being Lopez, put runners on second and third with one out. Then he got himself a strikeout and popup to send the game into extra innings. The good Sox scored two in the tenth and shut the door in the bottom of the frame to win their fifth straight game, 5-1. This is where fans of most other teams would start dreaming of a sweep. But to be a White Sox fan is to search out all possibilities for disaster. La Russa is resting Tim Anderson—batting .414 with twelve hits and six runs scored over his last seven games—and starting Dallas Keuchel. Oh, well. All good things come to an end.