Why

The White Sox lost 3-1 to the Cardinals yesterday because Luis Castillo pitched on Saturday. Here’s why. Saturday, Sox manager Vibes Venable went the opener route, figuring the odds were Castillo wasn’t going to give him much. That meant 1.1 innings for opener Sean Newcomb before Castillo labored through 2.2 innings. Hagen Smith followed with two innings; then Grant Taylor with 1.2 innings; Jordan Hicks, .1 inning; and Bryan Hudson, one inning. In other words, Venable needed five good relievers in various roles to get the win, blessed be the name of Randal Grichuk. Yesterday, rookie David Sandlin did everything that GM Chris Getz thought he’d be getting from Castillo when he acquired the veteran righty at the trade deadline, and then some. Sandlin set down the first sixteen St. Louis batters he faced before giving up two one-out singles in the sixth inning. Rather than panic, Sandlin struck out Bryan Torres. That made it two on, two out for a righty-right matchup against Ivan Herrera. Sandlin did his job, inducing a hard groundball to shortstop Colson Montgomery, who booted it. (Not to worry. Venable covered for Montgomery in the postgame, baserunner Nathan Church apparently screening Montgomery just long enough to cause the miscue.) That brought up lefthanded-hitting Alec Burleson, at the time sitting on 106 RBIs. Venable chose to lift his starter. But who do you bring in? All the best lefty relievers pitched not even 24 hours earlier. Smith, with 29 strikeouts in 20 innings, would have been the best option if he hadn’t already gone two innings. And maybe he was the best option, if only to get one out. Venable opted for lefty Chris Murphy. Not quite lions vs. Christians, but Burleson still cleared the bases with a double to right. Montgomery had a chance to redeem himself with two out in the top of the ninth and the bases loaded, but he flied out to shallow centerfield. It shouldn’t have come to that. Because of Luis Castillo, it did.