Tony La Russa should be fired between games.
Davis Martin went out and did his job, six innings of work with four runs allowed most of those in the second where some questionable things happened that could have limited the damage. He went out there and pitched as well as one could have hoped for a sixth starter. He still is not missing MLB bats with just three strikeouts compared to what he has done to Triple-A bats, but the result ended up fine, and the offense deserved to at least give Martin a no-decision. He even had a fun pick-off play:
After two innings, it seemed like it was just a matter of time until Cleveland scored, Davis Martin had been bailed out with two double plays and he was not missing bats. That came to a head in the third when the Guardians finally opened the flood gates with a two-out rally of three runs. It was not entirely on Martin, exhibit one - a better outfielder makes this catch:
A better manager puts José Ramírez on base instead of pitching to him:
The fourth run was more on him, but it could have been worse if not for Yolmer Sánchez, I mean, Josh Harrison’s nice play over the middle.
Meanwhile, Shane Bieber was chugging along, and White Sox bats let him. The game only lasted two hours and nine minutes. He only needed 95 pitches, seriously 95! He pounded the zone with 72 strikes compared to 23 balls, but the Sox could not do anything with the ball near the zone many times. The only run was off of an Eloy Jiménez single.
A simply dominant performance for the Guardian’s ace, but even worse, it was clear the White Sox lineup gave up. Ken Williams gave a speech, and it didn’t work, Tony La Russa needs to be fired in between these games or nothing will change. This is not a box score this lineup should be producing on a regular basis and they continue to do, even after this speech from the boss,’ boss,’ boss to rile them up for the second half of the season.