The Chicago White Sox, losers in three straight games, are currently 6-6 and tied for second place in the AL Central with the Kansas City Royals. Lo and behold, the ChiSox’s opponents yesterday were the Cleveland Guardians. Cleveland won both games of Wednesday’s doubleheader, so one would expect manager Tony La Russa to pull out all the stops yesterday to avoid the three-game sweep. You are wrong. (Clarification: This was supposed to be a four-game series, but two games were rained out and one was pushed back to July 12.)
When Chicago’s lineup was announced around 10 a.m. EST, many White Sox fans and baseball fans in general were scratching their heads over La Russa’s decisions, and wouldn’t you know, the White Sox lost again 6-3.
Leury Garcia is third?! I know you put him in third place in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader. Once I can understand, but twice?! You would have to go crazy! Vegas must be involved somehow. Maybe it’s an inside joke La Russa has with some of his friends. That’s the only way it makes sense to make that decision for two consecutive games. The third batter is said to be your best man. Garcia scores ahead of Abreu, Grandal and Jiménez? Make it meaningful! Someone, anyone, PLEASE! MAKE SENSE!
Of all the hitters in yesterday’s White Sox roster, Garcia is bottom in both career OPS (.660) and this-season OPS (.226). Obviously it hasn’t been a long season, but I had to say how stunned that decision was.
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To be fair to La Russa, this wasn’t the first time in White Sox history that such a hitter was placed in the three-hole. The first and only time the player with the lowest career and season OPS on the team ranked third for Chicago was September 1, 1979. In a game against the Milwaukee Brewers, who at the time were still in the American League were, White Sox manager Don Kessinger had hit first baseman Mike Squires third. Prior to 1979, Squires had a career .650 OPS. He has yet to hit a home run at the major league level, and his career slugging percentage (.321) was lower than his career on-base percentage (.329). It was a disastrous move by Kessinger, and I’m not at all shocked to learn that Kessinger was fired after the ’79 season.
This is the only other time in White Sox history that a rostering decision of this magnitude has ever been made. However, unlike the La Russa team, the White Sox actually are won this game! Squires went 2-on-3 and actually ended up surpassing teammate Kevin Bell in the OPS of the season. La Russa failed to win both games as Garcia finished third. Worse, Garcia only went 1-for-6 in those two games. He pulled two walks, but if La Russa had hoped that a move in the lineup would wake up Garcia’s thugs, he was clearly wrong.
Here’s the thing though, I’d be willing to give La Russa the benefit of the doubt here if he hadn’t made another equally stupid decision in the second game of Wednesday’s double-header. One run down toward the ninth heat, the White Sox had their backs to the wall. However, La Russa had an ace up their sleeve. He used two of his best hitters (Abreu and Jiménez) for the second game of this doubleheader. With first baseman Gavin Sheets scheduled to lead the ninth, it would make perfect sense for Abreu to come in and get a hit in this situation. Then La Russa could have gone crazy with the line-up. Jiménez is a natural outfielder so letting him bat for Andrew Vaughn would make sense. However, Vaughn has been hot lately, cutting .310/.375/.552 ahead of yesterday’s game. They don’t want to take him out of the lineup. Perhaps La Russa could have moved Grandal the DH to the catcher, moved the catcher, Reese McGuire, to the DH, and then put Jiménez in the DH role. That would have put him in line to finish third in ninth place.
A three-headed monster of Abreu, Vaughn and Jiménez would have given the White Sox a perfect game-ending opportunity. Instead, La Russa chose to do nothing…nothing at all. Absolutely brilliant. I know I mentioned this before, but the White Sox lost that game. They went three up, three down into the ninth.
The White Sox are a very good team. They have tons of talent and are favorites to win the World Series, but if La Russa keeps making moves like we’ve seen over the past two days, it will be a miracle if they win their division.
