The future is now Tony.
Things were going very well for the White Sox early in the season, with first manager Tony La Russa making his return to the game. But “very well” is not “great”, and Wednesday’s loss was to be forgotten.
La Russa may have stepped up a bit: The White Sox-Reds’ matchup on Wednesday afternoon threw extra innings, and La Russa replaced reliever Liam Hendrix as the team’s “ghost runner” at second base rather than a position player Granted.
Hendricks entered the game in a double switch and thus moved up to the No. 5 spot in the lineup, but La Russa admitted that he was unaware that he could field the former batsman (in this case, it was Jose Abreu Will be in) run, instead.
“I did not know,” La Russa said after the rule’s 1-0 loss.
“We all thought Liam was going to be a runner. I did not know that Abreau could run. I thought it was the guy who was last out or was the spot in that order. …
“I think you know the rules better,” La Russa told reporter James Fegan, who explained the rules to him. “now I know.”
What is this? https://t.co/YLJsKuHKXZSite about additional runner rules. La Russa said that he was not aware and thought that it was not a matter for the previous batsman. Said they wanted Garcia to steal the other, instead of calling himself pic.twitter.com/B2U9qXZkjq
– James Fagan (@JRFegan) 5 May, 2021
After running in and out of second place to bring the runners on first and third, Lurie Garcia was thumped in an attempt to swipe on the second and Billy Hamilton was out early for the third time. The Reds would go on to win half the race at home.
Coming back to baseball after a decade away from management is not spectacular for La Russa. But what looks worse is the extra inning rule, which some MLB fans absolutely despise, anyway.
Well, can we blame him? TLR has been around the game for six decades, so an itty-bitty rule change that costs a White Sox a win won’t come back to haunt him. He is 2,744 more of them anyway.
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