The Chicago White Sox had a really tough loss to the New York Yankees on Thursday night. It wasn’t very close in the end but it didn’t have to be that way. Although Dylan Cease had dominant enough stuff to record 11 strikeouts, he also gave up six runs.
The White Sox, however, gained some energy when yoan Moncada tied the game at 7 with a three-run home run in the bottom of the 7th inning. That would only last for a few minutes, however, as they blew it in the 8th.
Joe Kelly made two quick outs and looked like he was going to bring up the White Sox bats again which are starting to wake up. Unfortunately, he received some bad plate umpiring and unraveled after that.
With the game still very much winnable, Tony La Russa finally decided to make a pitching change. He, for whatever reason, went with Tanner Banks (a 30-year-old rookie) to face off against two sluggers named Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson.
The Chicago White Sox lost because of mismanagement by Tony La Russa.
That is a laughable decision. There were so many significantly better pitchers in the bullpen available to Tony La Russa and he went with Banks. It was like he gave up on the game in the 8th inning against a really good team.
Banks being a bad option, in general, isn’t even the worst of it. Stanton and Donaldson are both right-handed power hitters. Tanner Banks is a lefty so Tony La Russa literally just played into better matchups for the Yankees and they made them pay.
The Yankees tacked on seven in that eighth inning and one in the ninth to take a 15-7 win over the White Sox. Yes, Joe Kelly deserves some blame for unraveling after not getting the call on out number three. However, La Russa’s managing is getting laughable at this point.
You just can’t allow a team to score seven runs in an inning where you have two outs and nobody on. La Russa also deserves plenty of criticism for gift-wrapping a few RBIs to one of the best right-handed power hitters our game has seen in the last 30 years (Stanton). This team is laughable sometimes and it won’t change until La Russa is no longer with them.