I Should Be Happy, But—

The White Sox put themselves in a 4-0, first inning hole last night that Yankees’ starter Cam Schlitter only deepened by retiring seventeen of the first eighteen batters he faced. Then something happened. The Sox rallied to win 6-5 in twelve innings, thanks to a flare of a single off the bat of Edgar Quero. Still. The Sox tied the score at four with back-to-back homeruns from Sam Antonacci and Munetaka Murakami in the eighth. Two innings later, with a chance to win the game with a runner on third and one out, manager Vibes Venable pinch-hit for Antonacci to get a righty-lefty advantage. The move didn’t work as Randal Grichuk grounded out with the infield drawn in. Antonacci is hitting .200 against lefties, .300 against righties. The next batter, Murakami, is 195 against lefties and .260 vs. righties. But Venable didn’t pinch-hit for Murakami. Baseball is a game of emotions, as evidenced by Davis Martin’s performance. Martin gave up three hits and a walk in that first inning, only to settle down and throw five shutout innings during which time he scattered two singles and a walk. Good for him. Now I wonder, what happened? Odds are he channeled those emotions into an effective performance. Which was what Antonacci did with that homerun in the eighth, going 0-for-3 in his previous at-bats. Do you think that would’ve stopped all of a sudden because of the pitching matchup? We’ll never know. And neither will Venable.