Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa is again on the receiving end of criticism following their 11-9 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday afternoon.
It all started in the sixth inning with Los Angeles boasting a 7-5 lead. With Trea Turner at bat and the count at 1-2, La Russa opted to intentionally walk the Dodgers hitter to face Max Muncy. Like clockwork, Muncy nailed a three-run homer to give the road team a 10-5 lead.
Walking Turner to face Muncy wasn’t the bad decision Tony La Russa made here. The infielder entered Thursday’s game hitting .303 with 7 homers and 45 RBI in 56 games. Muncy was hitting just .150 and had missed 13 games to injury before Thursday’s outing.
Rather, it’s all about walking a player on a 1-2 count. It just made no sense. And in reality, it came to haunt the Sox in a game that they lost by just two.
Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and others react to Tony La Russa decision
It was a bit of comic relief to see the reactions from Dodgers players as La Russa made his now-ill-fated decision. On base at the time, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Muncy had a completely different and NSFW reaction, too.
The other reactions on social media were pretty similar.
For his part, Tony La Russa defended the decision by saying “that wasn’t a tough call. Is that really a question?”
Oh, boy!