Of Openers and Word Salad

The Royals scored four runs against the White Sox in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and they scored four in the first last night on their way to a 5-4 win. That’s what I meant about momentum. Opener Bryan Hudson didn’t have it, pure and simple, getting tagged for four runs (three earned) on four hits in .1 inning of work. And what did Sox manager Vibes Venable have to say about Hudson’s outing? He told reporters after the game, “Credit the Royals for putting the ball in play, finding the holes and we weren’t able to stop them really that first inning.” [all quotes from today’s Trib story online] I have eyes, Skipper. Tell me why your team, your opener, couldn’t stop the Royals in that first inning. Otherwise, stop insulting my intelligence. The way you did in discussing the play that cost you the game in the seventh inning. With a runner on second, two out, the score tied at four and Hagen Smith on the mound, you decided to have Smith pitch to Maikel Garcia, who already had two hits and two RBIs. Garcia made it three across the board with a run-scoring double. Why give the righthanded Garcia the righty-left advantage against Smith? Why not walk him and have Smith face lefty Vinnie Pasquantino? Get ready for the jibber-est of jibber answers, folks. “We talked about it,” Venable said. “It was just below the threshold as far as the gap between them that we typically do it.” Say what? “In hindsight, you wish that maybe you would [have walked Garcia]. But the process was good. [!!##$%!] That’s just one of those [times] in which the threshold on that matchup was below what we typically do to walk someone.” Words fail me. Venable, too, it would seem.