Winning Very, Very Ugly

And the rookies shall lead them. Down a run in the bottom of the ninth against the Guardians last night and facing one of the best if not the best closer in the person of Cade Smith, Braden Montgomery drew a one-out walk. Tristan Peters followed with an opposite-field double. After Jacob Gonzalez struck out, Sam Antonacci delivered the game-winning single. Sox 6 Guardians 5. Only it never should have come to this. The Sox were ahead 3-0 going into the seventh, but manager Vibes Venable thinks Grant Taylor should be a setup man; three runs later, Taylor proved how wrong that assumption is. The Sox then went ahead 4-3 in the eighth (Antonacci driving in the go-ahead run, of course), which led Venable to call on Seranthony Dominguez, who everyone outside of Venable at the Rate knows is not a closer; two runs later, Dominguez proved that point. So, a shoutout to the rookies for coming through. But when will Venable realize he has to flip-flop Taylor’s and Dominguez’s roles? And what’s up with Colson Montgomery, who went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts? Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but if Montgomery doesn’t hit, the Sox won’t make the postseason.