TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
The White Sox are looking to move 22 games over .500 for the first time since 9/13/06 (84-62).
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 21, 2021
⏰: 12:10 p.m. CT
📺: @NBCSChicago
📻: @ESPN1000 pic.twitter.com/0QcAtTmTy3
First Pitch: White Sox at Rays
Brutal route by Goodwin
20 million for a number five starter
He has been brutal, no doubt. This game was set up to be a loss anyway with a pitiful lineup. Why rest TA and Robert on same day? TLR managing like these games don’t matter, which is not true for playoff seeding.
Yeah not staggering the rest of Robert and Tim makes me angry. I guess maybe LaRussa is a cynic he figured Keuchel would get rocked
If they were in any other division, I highly doubt anybody would be giving TLR much praise at all. I’m not sure he is any better than Renteria, who also won a lot of games.
He isn’t an elite manager anymore I know that. I wish the Sox would have a truly elite guy for once.
I’m all for elite but would settle for an average level of competence. It doesn’t take a genius to manage this team, just someone who is thoughtful and more in touch with the game situation than TLR appears to be at times.
I’ve moved from the ‘HES AN INCOMPETENT OLD FART’ camp to the ‘he’s staying out of the way’ camp. Regardless, his legacy for this tenure with the Sox is going to be defined by his performance in the playoffs. Ask me again after game three of the ALDS.
He didn’t stay out of the way last night. He was right in the middle of the mess.
I’m fine with white flag games especially with such a big division lead. It’s just particularly telling that they choose a Keuchel start to assume the loss.
I disagree. Of course every game matters for playoff seeding. But by that reasoning you would never rest any of your primary position players. You have to rest them sometimes and you have to give bench players an opportunity to play some games to stay fresh. If the issue here is that he rested both TA and Robert (after an 11 inning game), would it have made a difference if he had only rested one of them? Given the final result, I doubt it. Both replacements went 1 for 4 with doubles. Unlikely that either TA or Robert would have had such a better game at bat to make up the four run difference. This game was lost because of poor pitching, not a pitiful lineup.
You could make an argument for Keuchel being the seventh best starter on the roster at this point.
Would the team be better off having López take his turn in the rotation? López looks more likely to contribute to the postseason roster given how each pitcher has performed over the past few weeks.
They have to be thinking that at some point. Although I think Lopez ERA is likely to be higher than 1.08 after tomorrow.
Keuchel’s K% doesn’t really make him cut out for relief work. In a vacuum that deal is looking bad but it’s fortunate the team is as good as it is (or that the rest of division is as bad as it is depending on you perspective).