Piling On

Like they say, go big or go home. White Sox manager Tony La Russa made a decision yesterday that was gigantic, judging by the reaction. And, in the end, it could cost La Russa his job. Not only is White Sox Nation upset by La Russa’s decision to issue an intentional walk to the Dodgers’ Tre Turner in yesterday’s 11-9 loss; the move invited derision from critics nationwide. Once upon a time, the Sox were leading by a 4-0 score. Then the defense started to suck, and Dylan Cease started to suck, and La Russa continued to suck. Jake Burger made one physical error and two mental ones at third base; his manager didn’t call him out, but at least Burger had sense enough to did it himself. As for Cease, he confused pitching in a game with warming up for one. Catcher Yasmani Grandal either could not or would not get his focus back. Cease had seven full counts in 4.2 innings of torturous work, and threw 110 pitches on the day. He already had sixty-five pitches going into the fifth and threw another forty-five to the nine batters he faced over two-thirds of an inning. Burger booted a ball that could have turned into an inning-ending double play, yes, but no runs scored because of it. In fact, Cease was one out away from getting out of the inning without damage. Instead, he gave up two doubles, a single and a walk. Sorry, but that’s not the mark of a Cy Young-caliber pitcher. Pitchers want to minimize the number of pitches they throw. If they can’t be made to see that, Houston (alright, South Side), we have a problem. As for La Russa’s decision to walk Turner in the sixth despite the count and Max Muncy hitting a three-run homer off of Bennett Sousa, so much for the lefty-lefty matchup. La Russa and his critics are citing a different set of stats (this season vs. career) to make their respective points, so I’ll leave them to fight it out. Instead, I’d like to ask our manager and general manager a few questions about the pitching staff. Like, what makes them think Sousa is a major-league pitcher? Going into the game, he had a 6.50 ERA in twenty-two games this season. After yesterday, his ERA stands at 8.20. At the end of April, he had a 5.63 ERA, and his ERA for the month of May was more than a run higher, at 6.75. And now Sousa’s June ERA is a whopping 15.75. Why would you bring him into a game? Why would you put him on your roster? Ditto Jose Ruiz, who gave up a run yesterday in one inning of work. Ruiz has yielded one or more runs in six out of his last nine appearances. Again, why would bring in someone with a 5.03 ERA when you’ve just scored two runs to pull to within three in the ninth inning? But out comes Ruiz, and he turns a 10-7 game into an 11-7 score. That falls on La Russa, and it has to fall on Hahn. It's bad when MLB.com does a story on La Russa’s failed strategy, and it’s bad when one of the Red Sox announcers jokes that he thought a Boston player was going to get an intentional walk since the count was 0-2. Even Jason Benetti and Steve Stone were pretty flummoxed on TV. Right now, the White Sox are a laughingstock, courtesy of a manager who never should’ve been hired and an owner who never should’ve hired him in the first place.