Will Venable Has Questionable Response to White Sox Loss
Will Venable's questionable late-game decisions cost the White Sox a golden opportunity to gain ground in the AL Central, and his explanations after the loss only made them more frustrating.
Video Transcript
A frustrating loss for the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night was made even worse by Will Venable's comments after the game.
The White Sox lost two to nothing.
They squandered five and two-thirds scoreless innings from Davis Martin.
They missed an opportunity to gain ground on the Cleveland Guardians, who also lost in the division.
And it really came down to the White Sox not coming through in scoring chances.
Specifically, I have to look at the eighth inning, where there were two blunders by the White Sox, one by a player, one by the manager, and both of them were defended by Will Venable after the game.
Tristan Peters led things off with a triple in the top of the eighth, zero-zero game at the time, White Sox looking to get that first run and take the lead, take command.
Peters then ran into an out at home plate.
Romo walked, first and third, nobody out.
Sam Antonacci hits a ground ball.
Tristan Peters gunned down by a mile going home.
Will Venable, after the game, says that he felt Peters made the right decision going there to avoid the double play.
May be true in some worlds, may be true on paper, but in the context of this game, not a good base running play by Tristan Peters.
For one, he hesitated before running.
That is basically, the first sign that you should not proceed to run home.
And number two, there was really no double play for the White Sox to avoid.
The Astros didn't have anybody covering second base.
Sam Antonacci was running and likely could have beat out any sort of double play attempt.
Peters had the play in front of him and made the mistake.
Now, mistakes happen, especially over the course of 162.
It doesn't make it any less frustrating for a White Sox fan, but yes, players, managers will make mistakes.
It is the response to these mistakes, though, that I have issue with, like Will Venable saying this was the right call by Tristan Peters.
And okay, let's say you wanna just, you know, write it off as a manager defending his guys.
I can get on board with that.
But what about Will Venable taking accountability for his own errors?
Because after that play happened, the White Sox could have and should have pinch run for Drew Romo, who was on second base.
They had Brenton Doyle and Luis Angel Acua sitting on the bench, two designated runners, essentially.
This is the tailor-made situation, especially for somebody like Acua, to get into a game.
You need a run, put the fast guy on second base and not your catcher.
The White Sox didn't do it, so when Munetaka Murakami singled, Romo didn't score.
Miguel Vargas then grounds into a double play to end the inning.
Will Venable asked why he didn't pinch run there, said, "Hey, maybe hindsight wishes he would have, but hey, Drew Romo was catching a shutout," whatever that means.
The White Sox so concerned about preserving a shutout that their guy was catching a shutout.
Mind you, the starting pitcher was already pulled from the game, and they're not focused on the fact that they've been shut out themselves, that their best scoring opportunity includes pinch running with one of your faster guys and getting that guy on base.
It is decisions like this, the obsession with handedness, the, not lifting your catcher because he's catching a shutout in the eighth of a zero-zero game, the saving some of your high leverage relief pitchers because you want them to be able to pitch tomorrow and not focusing on getting the win today.
These are the things that make it so easy to question Will Venable at times, and it makes it really frustrating after a devastating loss and a point in the schedule where every game matters.
The loss itself stung, but it's listening to these explanations that don't seem to make a lot of logical sense that make you really scratch your head if you're a White Sox fan looking at the performance on Wednesday.
