It is certainly unfair to lay all of the blame for the White Sox's disappointing season at the feet of manager Tony La Russa, but it's tough to keep the spotlight off him when he keeps fucking up in discrete and memorable ways. A lot of bad managers are able to escape notice by, for example, not ordering their team to issue an intentional walk to a hitter on a 1-2 count, or, just to pick another scenario totally at random here, physically endangering one of their best young pitchers.
White Sox starlet Michael Kopech was set to start this afternoon's game against the Kansas City Royals, but while he was warming up before the bottom of the first he very obviously was in physical discomfort. After laboring through a few warmup tosses, La Russa and the trainers walked out to the mound to check on Kopech. Surely, La Russa would not let his young starter, who has already dealt with a number of serious injuries in his young career, just go on and start the game all fucked up. Right? Right?
Here's a look at what went down with Michael Kopech and what the White Sox deemed as left knee soreness pic.twitter.com/eFP3bNvJfI
— Casey Drottar (@CDrottar19) August 22, 2022
Kopech did in fact start the game all fucked up, and here is what happened: He threw some fastballs that were well below his normal velocity, walked one batter, hit another, surrendered a single, walked another batter, and was then finally pulled from the game after 19 pitches.
The Royals would go on to score four runs in the first inning, and the game is currently tied 4-4. Another winning move from ol' Tony!
