Well, the Sox are 2-0, and both wins were helped greatly by terrible managing by the opposing manager. Game 1 was covered in the previous post, so let’s look at Game 2.
In the top of the 7th, with the Sox leading 4-2, the Royals had the bases loaded, with one out. They had a lefty hitter, Gordon, at bat, and the Sox had Donnie Veal pitching. Veal is a lefty that completely dominated lefty hitters last year. The chances of the Royals scoring without squeezing were almost nonexistent, and not squeezing cost the Royals a potential win the game before. The Royals didn’t squeeze and didn’t score. As so often happens, leaving a runner on third with less than 2 outs and not scoring changes the momentum, and the other team scores the next inning. This is what happened–the Sox’ leadoff hitter homered, making the score 5-2, basically ending the game.
Both White Sox wins in a 2-0 start to the season were greatly impacted by terrible managing by the opponent, but no one realizes this. That’s why these bad strategies continue to be used.
Now, to the Cubs. The Cubs, down 2-0 to Pittsburgh in the 7th, had bases loaded, one out, and Lillibridge up. The Cubs weren’t hitting and ended up with 2 hits for the game, the temperature was in the 30s so it was very cold making it difficult to hit and score, and Lillibridge was up, and he hadn’t had a hit yet this year. The Cubs didn’t squeeze, Lillibridge struck out and they didn’t score, and the resulting change of momentum had the Pirates score the next inning making it 3-0, basically ending the game.