The Chicago White Sox had their chances at a ninth-inning rally against the Dodgers on Thursday, but the eventual 11-9 loss made it impossible to ignore the single worst managerial decision we’ve seen this season.
With the White Sox down two runs and Trea Turner facing a 1-2 count, Tony La Russa opted to intentionally walk Turner instead of trying to get that final strike and ending the inning. In his mind, the lefty-lefty matchup with the struggling Max Muncy was preferable to the decided advantage any pitcher has in a 1-2 count. Muncy promptly made La Russa pay for the dumb decision with a three-run home run.
Tony La Russa opted to intentionally walk Trea Turner with a 1-2 count to get a lefty-lefty matchup against Max Muncy and you won't believe what happened nextpic.twitter.com/QqdhAzn2Yw
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) June 9, 2022
As if that sequence wasn’t horrible enough, La Russa saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. Speaking to reporters after the game, La Russa doubled down on the decision to walk Turner despite not offering any real explanation for why they let Turner see three pitches before the walk.
Tony La Russa defends his decision to walk Trae Turner on a 1-2 count pic.twitter.com/hyhUQgTtXa
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) June 9, 2022
La Russa seemed genuinely surprised that the decision was even being questioned. And as he was trying to justify the decision, he seemed to confuse Turner and Muncy.
Again, it wasn’t like he decided to walk Turner immediately. He let Bennett Sousa get Turner in a 1-2 count BEFORE issuing the intentional pass. It made no sense, and his postgame defiance had MLB fans crushing La Russa all over again.
