Insanity

White Sox manager Tony La Russa keeps throwing the same slumping ballplayers out there, as if they’re going to start hitting, and they don’t. Talk about crazy. In last night’s 4-1 loss to the Dodgers (3-1 going into the ninth, when La Russa brought in Jose Ruiz, as if all of a sudden Ruiz could hold the opposition in check), Leury Garcia, Yoan Moncada and Yasmani Grandal went a collective 1-for-12, that “1” being a two-out single by Grandal in the bottom of the ninth. Folks, that’s the textbook definition of “too little too late.” Why La Russa batted Garcia leadoff is a mystery worthy of the Bermuda Triangle. Not only did Garcia strike out three times, he absolutely killed any chances of a comeback in the bottom of the fifth, striking out with runners on the corners, one out and one run in. Any kind of productive at-bat makes it a one-run ballgame. Speaking of productive, Jake Burger went 2-for-4 with a homerun against Tony Gonsolin; two hits vs. a premier righthander ain’t bad in my book. Burger absolutely kills lefthanders, with a .370 BA. That’s 149 points better than he’s doing against righthanded pitching. But he has twice as many homers against righties and those two hits against Gonsolin… So, what could be worse than batting Garcia (now batting .184) leadoff and Moncada (.136) third? Why, resting Andrew Vaughn, of course. Somebody needs to give La Russa a schedule and point out that the next two opponents are the Rangers and Tigers. Those are teams you can beat without your best. The Dodgers are not.