It was an embarrassing weekend for Will Venable's Chicago White Sox against the crosstown rival Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Not only did the White Sox get swept by the North Siders, they played a humiliating brand of baseball. It looked a lot like the 2024 White Sox that were the laughing stock of baseball.
The Sox made a handful of pathetic errors during the series, repeatedly dropping pop-ups and fly balls that were costly. There were moments where the Sox failed to hustle and put forth a lackadaisical effort.
It was hard to watch. The good news for White Sox fans is that manager Will Venable seems to be holding his players accountable. Venable's Sunday lineup was an example of what good managers do. He is proving to be different from Pedro Grifol and Tony LaRussa, who never held their players accountable for poor effort.
Andrew Vaughn gets benched
With the White Sox trailing 6-3 in the seventh inning on Saturday afternoon, Andrew Vaughn stepped up to the plate to lead off the inning and try to lead a Sox comeback.
On a 3-2 count, Vaughn struck out swinging at a two-seam fastball from Brad Keller that nearly hit him.
The pitch was so far inside that it got by Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya and trickled all the way to the backstop.
Had Vaughn been running out his dropped third strike, he likely would have been standing on first base to start the inning with the White Sox desperately needing a rally. Instead, he stood there, gave a half-hearted jog and slammed his bat in frustration.
Vaughn's lack of effort cost the White Sox a baserunner. That kind of laziness should never fly in a Major League dugout.
On Sunday, Vaughn was on the bench with Tim Elko at first base and Joshua Palacios as the designated hitter. Vaughn entered the game as a pinch hitter for Palacios, but I liked to see that he was not in the lineup after not hustling on Saturday.
Pedro Grifol and Tony LaRussa always failed to have standards for the players in the clubhouse. We saw White Sox culture deteriorate from 2021-2024 with rumors of players not working hard in the offseason. We regularly saw players refuse to hustle and make elementary mistakes in the field or on the bases.
There never seemed to be consequences. And so the laziness spread.
That's not how Will Venable does things. For White Sox fans everywhere that's a really good sign, even if the current roster is not talented enough to win.