Mercy

The White Sox stood toe-to-toe with the Yankees through 7.2 innings last night at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. Yessir, two out and nobody on. What could possibly go wrong? So, how did the visitors score seven, count ’em, seven, two-out runs? It would help if somebody asked Joe Kelly why he fell in love with his breaking ball. Because Kelly kept throwing it in the process of walking the bases loaded. Aaron Judge broke that string with a grounder up the middle that second baseman Leury Garcia fielded and threw to first, but late. For reasons best known to himself, Jose Abreu looked at the first-base umpire in disbelief. Excuse me, but you look home instead to keep a second run from scoring, then call time to question the call. Not only did Abreu fail to do any of that, he stumbled making the throw home. Did our first baseman retire without telling anybody? Sure looks like it. As for the rest of the debacle, manager Tony La Russa thought it made sense to have rookie lefthander Tanner Banks face righty Giancarlo Stanton, who already had four RBIs on the night; a two-run single made it six. La Russa kept Banks in to face another righty, Josh Donaldson, who hit a three-run homer. La Russa was quoted after the game on the team website that if he had used Kendall Graveman in the eighth, “he can’t pitch tomorrow, probably.” Why not? Wednesday’s game with Cleveland was cancelled due to a COVID outbreak that hit the Guardians’ coaching staff. Was Graveman pitching somewhere else? Again, we’ll see if this team can bounce back. Better managing would certainly help.