If you didn’t see Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa’s managing expertise in action yesterday versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, by now you have surely heard about what happened.
La Russa chose to walk Trea Turner (who had one ball and two strikes) and bring up Max Muncy who is off to a slow start this year but has a history of being great.
All Muncy proceeded to do was hit a three-run home run, swinging momentum towards the Dodgers and giving them a lead that was just about insurmountable.
But the White Sox didn’t just lie down and play dead. They fought back and fought back hard to try to overtake the Dodgers and their attempt fell just short. It was a showing by a team that refused to quit and wanted to win despite what their manager was doing.
In the bottom of the eighth, the score was 10-5 in favor of the Dodgers. The White Sox bats all of the sudden got hot and pretty soon they found themselves three runs away from tying the Dodgers with a score of 10-7.
The two runs came courtesy of a single by catcher Yasmani Grandal and a throwing error by Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia which allowed another run to score, this one by third baseman Jake Burger.
The Chicago White Sox had a chance to win the game on Thursday night.
The White Sox would leave the eighth inning with a three-run deficit and a chance to hold the Dodgers in the top of the 9th and then attempt to continue their comeback in the bottom of the 9th. At that point, the White Sox’s chances of a win were slim but still possible.
Things would get a little more difficult for the White Sox in the top of the 9th as the Dodgers were able to tack on an additional run to make it 11-7. The White Sox needed four runs to tie the game and five to win. That seemed pretty insurmountable at that point.
But the White Sox fought hard in the bottom of the ninth and scored one run by Andrew Vaughn, on a wild pitch to make it 11-8. A.J. Pollock would come through with a single giving the White Sox nine runs.
They were just two runs away from tying it and actually had two men on base. Gavin Sheets come up to try to knock in some runs or even give them the win. At this point, fans had learned that anything was possible.
But, after a near-epic at-bat, Sheets was unable to knock in any runs or hit a homer. The Sox would go on to lose the game 11-9.
The White Sox fought hard to try to get a comeback but they fell just short of their goal. This team doesn’t have any quit in it and fights hard to the end. However, they and their manager need to work on their decision-making to make sure that they are doing the right things to win games.
These fast and furious comebacks that fall short are not the way to go about winning. They need to take the time to win them the right way and not have to scramble in the end for a victory.