But worst of all, the Sox lost because* unvarnished LOOGY Leyson Septimo let three straight lefties best him while Matt Thornton sat out, fully rested.

*They also lost because they couldn’t scrape any runs together off of the strikeout-less wonder Aaron Cook, but that’s another topic.

There’s plenty of second-guessing to be done for Septimo staying in the game after walking the first two hitters in the 8th.  The spottiness of his control was known when he arrived from Charlotte, and Ventura has already had to give him a quick hook this season when it was evident that his command wasn’t there, so a tie game in the 8th inning in Boston was a less than optimal time to give Leyson his first crack at ‘working through it’.

Pressed for answers, Ventura gave a generalized ‘what would you have me do?’

“Right now you don’t have a choice,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “That’s what we are. Whether it’s reasonable that you can do it, we don’t have a choice. We’ve got guys who need to grow up quick and be able to get it done. That’s just where we’re at until guys get healthy.’’

That may not completely explain why Septimo pitched to Adrian Gonzalez, but certainly points to where the temptation came from.

Right now at the end of games Robin Ventura has a closer who can’t find his slider (Reed), Nate Jones (who has been scored upon in his last three appearances), and the Matt Thornton.

Thornton finding his form and returning to the land of the sub-3.00 ERA’s has been incredibly useful, but Ventura is already riding it for all its worth.  Matt’s on pace for 70.1 innings pitched in 77 appearances for the year.  If he breaches 70 innings, that would be his highest total since 2009, but the appearances total would be a career-high.

Age 35 is not an ideal time to start setting career-highs in appearances.

With that in mind, and since Matt Thornton is not just the top lefty in the pen, but the top reliever by a mile, Ventura is understandably looking for any opportunities that can be managed by his lesser options.  If he wasn’t, he’d be finding himself calling upon #37 every time, and creating a new set of problems.

Ventura certainly wasn’t flawless Monday, but he’s in a situation that’s pushing him to be more aggressive.  He could certainly use a lot of Jesse Crain right now, and hopefully that’s about to be fixed.

But since he’s a rookie manager, it might behoove the Sox to make his margin of error a bit larger.  Calling for trades or additions is an annoying fan trait, but if the White Sox are going to talk about being the best team they can possibly be, relief help isn’t especially expensive or hard to find.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan.  Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer

White Sox (49-40): 1
Red Sox (46-44): 5

The White Sox lone run came after a curious play involving an Adam Dunn shift and heads up baserunning by Kevin Youkilis. Dunn hit a slow grounder to the right side of the infield, too slow for a play to be made on Youkilis at second and the out had to be made at first. Youk noticed what the Boston defenders did not: there was nobody covering third. He took off on a foot race with Will Middlebrooks to get to the bag and the Adrian Gonzalez throw sailed into left field, allowing Youkilis to score.

They Red Sox half of the 8th inning began with Leyson Septimo issuing walks to Carl Crawford and David Ortiz, making way for Adrian Gonzalez to pick up his 4th RBI of the game by way of a 3-run HR flipped over the monster.

The White Sox offense didn’t get much done, the only run coming from an error, but Aaron Cook deserves some credit as he worked his sinker against a strong offense inducing ground balls all night long. 15 of 21 Aaron Cook earned outs came via ground ball.

Plus: Dylan Axelrod’s performance was not expected and hopefully manages to not get buried in the loss. White Sox fans were hard on Dylan after his start going into the All-Star game against the Blue Jays, quickly forgetting his Yankee Stadium performance. If he can carry some of the confidence from this one, it will go a long way towards keeping a functional starting rotation through all the injuries.

Minus: It would be great to have seen some more offense go up on the board but the rookie bullpen, tonight represented by Leyson Septimo coughed this one up. Issuing free passes is an act that moves you ever closer to issuing the opposition a win. Dylan Axelrod showed the flip side of this by not walking anybody. Unfortunately for Septimo he got beat by Adrian Gonzalez and he was unable to escape from the jam he built, but from the moment he entered the game it’s doubtful that too many Sox fans were confident in him getting through his time out there unscathed. What the White Sox need is a bullpen presence that doesn’t cause instant anxiety.

Player of the Game
Dylan Axelrod – .344 win probability added

Source: FanGraphs

Blue Jays (43-43): 11
White Sox (47-38): 9

Robin Ventura won't be short on comments about the day's umpiring. (Dennis Wierzbicki-US PRESSWIRE)

The White Sox would make a game of it, the first two surges coming courtesy of Alex Rios who lined a 3 run HR in the first and an RBI double in the four run Sox 5th. Rios went 3-5 on the day with 4 RBI. Alexei Ramirez tripled home a pair of runs in that 5th frame and the Sox cut what was an 8-3 lead to an 8-7.

In the top of the 6th inning Septimo came in having inherited Rajai Davis as a baserunner, who was walked by Brian Omogrosso. Septimo paid no mind to Davis as he stole second, less mind to him when he stole third, and while in the process of walking Colby Rasmus, threw a ball past Flowers that brought Davis in to score. Nate Jones entered to face Jose Bautista and he lined a ball over the bag at third that was interfered with by a stadium security guard and was ruled a ground rule double. The replays were not definitive on if the ball was fair or foul in the first place, but to add insult to injury, Rasmus was awarded home despite being on first for the at-bat. When the interference occurred, Rasmus had just rounded second, leading one to believe a play at the plate would have been imminent had the ball’s path not been interrupted. One more run would be notched in the inning stretching the Jays’ lead back to 4.

As close as this game was in the end, it’s hard not to look at the poor strike calling of home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn. Strike calls in White Sox offensive innings ranged well outside of the plate while not being consistently made on the other side. Blue Jays pitchers wisely kept pounding the mark a couple inches out, forcing Sox hitters to protect and racked up quite a few strikeouts using this process. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many strikes called on pitches that clearly had none of the plate. After a particularly poorly called bottom of the 8th that squashed another potential rally, Robin Ventura had seen enough. As Jeff Mathis took a strike ball that crossed the plate above the knees in the top of the 9th, Robin came storming out of the dugout and let Reyburn know how he felt. I’m not sure anybody has ever seen Robin that hot, certainly not Reyburn, who tossed the skipper from the game.

A 9th inning rally did occur, but fell short of the mark and that frame, at least, didn’t seem to need any help from the umpiring crew to push it in the Blue Jays’ favor.

Plus: More clawing for the Sox. For every run that Toronto put on the board the White Sox worked to keep the game close. Unfortunately more than a couple of attempted comebacks fell victim to faulty umpiring and they never scratched their way to a victory.

Minus: It’s getting to be difficult to watch Tyler Flowers with a bat in his hand. His average dropped to .164 on Sunday afternoon as he was the only Sox starter not to reach base, and he never seemed too interested in getting there. A couple of helpless looking strikeouts summed up his day before being pulled for A.J. to enter the game in the 7th. Options aren’t there and the pitching help is more urgent as far as trade acquisitions, so Tyler is going to either have to figure out how to get hot or A.J. Pierzynski is going to be a very tired man.

Source: FanGraphs