(670 The Score) The White Sox’s 5-2 loss to the Guardians on Friday evening was full of storylines, subplots and intensity.
On a night that Guardians right-hander Triston McKenzie struck out a career-high 14 and White Sox outfielder Andrew Vaughn took a pitch off the arm that then bloodied his lip when it ricocheted off his face, the seventh inning was where it really went off the rails for Chicago, which held a 2-1 lead entering the bottom half.
With two outs and a runner on third, the Guardians’ Steven Kwan tied the game with an RBI triple and then scored the go-ahead run on Amed Rosario’s RBI single. It was at that point that White Sox manager Tony La Russa inserted lefty reliever Jake Diekman to face Guardians star Jose Ramirez, who’s a switch-hitter. Diekman walked Ramirez and Josh Naylor to load the bases.
In the next at-bat in a lefty-lefty matchup, the Guardians’ Andres Gimenez tapped a soft, slow-rolling two-run single through the left side of the infield to give Cleveland a much more comfortable lead. The White Sox didn’t have a shortstop in the traditional spot, having shifted Elvis Andrus to the right side, a move that NBC Sports Chicago analyst Ozzie Guillen questioned on the postgame show.
From there, another oddity soon occurred. La Russa left Diekman in to face the righty-swinging Oscar Gonzalez despite Diekman having faced the minimum three batters, apparently because righty reliever Jimmy Lambert wasn’t warmed up yet.
“That guy (Gonzalez) is not supposed to face the lefty,” Guillen said on the NBC Sports Chicago postgame show.
As Gonzalez swung through a 1-1 pitch for the second strike, the pair of Guardians on base stole second and third. At that point, La Russa called for an intentional walk on the 1-2 count with first base open. It was the second time that La Russa had issued an intentional walk on a two-strike count this season.
When he did it in June against the Dodgers, it backfired, as the ensuing batter hit a three-run homer. This time, La Russa’s decision worked to perfection, as Lambert induced an inning-ending flyout after being summoned from the bullpen.
After the game, La Russa cited Gonzalez hitting .306 entering the night as the reason for issuing the intentional walk, James Fegan of the Athletic reported. La Russa also called the drama over him issuing two-strike intentional walks “the most ridiculous thing in this season," Fegan reported.
As Diekman exited the field when La Russa inserted Lambert, he was angry and appeared to share a few profanities. It wasn’t clear if Diekman was upset with the defensive shift that didn’t pay off – White Sox right-hander Lance Lynn was really angry about a similar matter during a game in June – or because La Russa had taken the ball out of his hand on a 1-2 count by calling for the intentional walk or because he simply had performed poorly.
The way the seventh inning went for the White Sox, perhaps it was everything that was the root of the anger as they fell 3.5 games behind the Guardians in the AL Central.
Listen live to 670 The Score via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker