Make em miss, make em pay

Baseball is beautiful, when it works. Each guy gets his fair shot to hit the ball, the best the pitcher can serve up against the best swing the batter has. Even though pitch clocks threaten to erode that essential truth, it is still the heart of baseball. Until it isn’t.

In the words of Forrest Gump, sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no sense.

Enter Tony La Russa, stage left.

In the top of the sixth, and with the Dodgers up 7-5 on the White Sox, Freddy Freeman was on second base with Trea Turner at the plate. Bennett Sousa had a 1-2 count and then a decision that can only be described as “WTF?!?” came out of the Chicago dugout. “Give Turner a pass.”

Yes, you read right. Trea Turner, behind in the count and with two strikes on him, was intentionally walked. You can only think that La Russa liked his chances better against Max Muncy. But, wow, what a crazy move.

Trying to be charitable to Tony, I can see his thinking process. Muncy is in his first appearance back in the bigs, after spending 13 games on the IR with elbow inflammation. Added to the left-on-left matchup that he brings to the plate, and you can see why the White Sox might have felt good about facing him.

But even so, why would you walk a man with two strikes on him? You can throw two more stinkers before giving him anything good to swing at. It just makes no sense.

Muncy was definitely jacked up by the insult and promptly made the White Sox pay for their impertinence, ripping a three-run shot over the left field wall. As he came around to touch the plate, he was seen to say, “”You f***ing walk him with two strikes. F*** you, b****!”

The Dodgers stretched their lead out to 10-5 on that play and even though Chicago was able to pull some runs back late in the game, it wasn’t enough, with LA taking the win by a score of 11-9.

The Dodgers have missed the energy that Muncy brings to the lineup, and all True Blue fans are glad to see him back. Give ‘em hell, Max!