Decisions, Decisions

The White Sox took a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning at Wrigley Field last night, when Sox manager Vibes Venable decided to stick with reliever Jordan Hicks after the righthander had faced and retired one Cubs’ batter in the eighth. Last week, Sox GM Chris Getz decided to acquire veteran catcher Jake Rogers, which meant sending down Edgar Quero, he of the walk-off homerun against the North Siders back in May. In two games, Rogers has hit into two double plays and shown little behind the plate, though he did pick Alex Bregman off of third base in the seventh. But Rogers didn’t show the same ability challenging calls behind the plate. With one out and a 1-1 count to Bregman, Rogers challenged home-plate ump Scott Barry’s ball-call of an inside pitch to Bregman; the call was upheld, leaving the Sox without any more challenges in regulation. This is where it hurts. Bregman walked, and so did the next batter, Ian Happ, even though ball four was clearly strike three. Oh, well. Instead of two out and one on, it was two on and one out for Nico Hoerner, who singled in the tying run. Extra innings it was. With the score still tied going to the bottom of the tenth, Venable called on rookie Hagen Smith to make his fourth major-league appearance. First batter, Pete Crow-Armstrong. Three pitches later, Cubs 7 Sox 5. Where was Grant Taylor in any of this? Or Edgar Quero?