Before Monday’s Chicago White Sox game was even an inning old, there was a bad decision made by Tony La Russa. He has been awful all season long but this decision that he made was one of the worst of them all.
Michael Kopech was in clear pain throwing his warmup pitches before the bottom of the first inning. It was clearly something with his leg, likely his knee. He wasn’t landing right which made it clear that he wasn’t good to go.
Still, Tony let him start and it became a disaster. His velocity was down by a lot on almost every pitch that he threw. He was not looking comfortable and the results weren’t there for him. He allowed a run and bases loaded with no outs before he was pulled.
On the last batter that he faced, he threw four straight balls to walk the bases loaded. It was so obvious that he needed to come out before he even began but La Russa allowed it to get to this point. They finally called Jimmy Lambert out of the bullpen.
The Chicago White Sox/Tony La Russa make a bad decision on Michael Kopech.
Lambert was as warm as he could be in these conditions but it was clearly not the best situation for him. He allowed each of Michael Kopech’s runs to score so it was 4-0 Royals early. A strikeout and an inning-ending double play put them out of the inning but not before all that damage.
Something has to give with this manager. There is no reason that Kopech should have been put in that situation. They tried letting him work through it but why? They need Kopech for the future and that was just put on the back burner.
There were multiple indications that he should not be pitching but Tony La Russa ignored all of them. The obvious pain, the bad command, and the low velocity were all there but nothing was done to get him out until it was too late.
Michael’s next start was lined up to be Saturday. We will see if they are able to get him ready for that or if a trip to the Injured List is in is future. Hopefully, they are at least able to make this Monday game close but being behind 4-0 early is not good. Thanks, Tony.