Treading Water

During the All-Star break, White Sox closer Liam Hendriks talked about the dangers of complacency. Then Hendriks went out and lost the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against Cleveland, giving up three runs in the ninth. Final score, Guardians 7 Sox 4. In game two, Tony La Russa showed yet again that he’s mostly lost the HOF touch that marked him as a manager. With the Sox ahead 3-0 in the seventh inning, La Russa brought in Jose Ruiz, who gave up three runs in .2 innings. Reynaldo Lopez coughed up another, and the Sox suddenly found themselves down, 4-3. Lucky for the South Siders that A.J. Pollock managed a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth and Matt Foster kept his butterflies in check for his first save of the season. So, we split, which is akin to treading water. You can do that only for so long until things get better, or worse.