The Chicago White Sox were looking to sweep the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday and through the first five innings, they were in the driver seat to do so. At that point, the White Sox were up 4-1 and things were looking good.
After some struggles in his first start, I thought Dallas Keuchel pitched much better. After giving up the first run in the third inning, he locked in and retired six straight batters. Keuchel came out to start the sixth where he would give up a walk and a single before being pulled.
Matt Foster would then come in and this is where things completely fell apart. With two men already on base, Tom Murphy would be the first batter Foster would see. Murphy got a quick single that would load the bases.
Taylor Trammell would then hit a single to right field on the first pitch he saw. The game was 4-2 and Foster had only thrown three pitches at this point. With the bases still loaded Foster would then strike out Sam Haggerty for the first out of the inning.
A single and a sac-fly would score two more runs and tie the game at four. Foster would then walk Ty France after an 11 pitch at-bat that once again loaded the bases. With two outs and the bases loaded, Kyle Seager came up to the plate to hit a base clearing double. All momentum was with Seattle at this point and Foster probably should’ve already been pulled.
Yet, Foster would face one more batter where he gave up another single driving home Seager. The score was now 8-4 and the Mariners scored seven runs in this inning, five of them charged to Foster.
This was the worst outing of the young man’s career but at some point, the manager needs to step in. Foster shouldn’t have even faced Seager but Tony La Russa decided to leave him in. La Russa did take blame after the game which was good to see.
Tony La Russa on the nightmarish sixth inning: "I did a really lousy job of managing that inning, and it really hurt our chances to win."
— Vinnie Duber (@VinnieDuber) April 8, 2021
La Russa has been pretty quick to go to the bullpen early on in games. That does make sense since we’re only seven games in. He also isn’t afraid to let his guys throw with Michael Kopech, Garrett Crochet, and even Liam Hendriks receiving some longer outings but it was clear Foster didn’t have it in this game.
This was yet another tough loss for a Sox team that has had quite a few frustrating losses this season. A sweep of Seattle could’ve been good for the confidence of this team as it would’ve put them over .500, at 4-3.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case but the White Sox do get to look forward to their first home game on Thursday. After a seven-game west-coast trip, the team finally gets to play in front of their passionate fans for the first time since 2019.