White Sox: Tony La Russa makes strong comments after win

The Chicago White Sox played a big series against the Boston Red Sox this past weekend. They took two of three from them and they were all close one-run games. Now, they will go into this week with the magic number at nine. It has been a lot of fun to watch the stars on this team grow together. It has also been fun to watch less likely contributors help them win games.

One of those players is Leury Garcia. He is currently the longest-tenured player on the Chicago White Sox which tells you what the organization thinks of him. He was really good in this series against the Red Sox as he played some great defense and was great with his bat. He hit two home runs in the series and one of them was a walk-off winner on Sunday afternoon.

After strikeouts by Eloy Jimenez and Yasmani Grandal, you wouldn’t really expect Garcia to do that but it’s what makes baseball great. He played the hero in a game that the White Sox really wanted to win. The Red Sox are a really good team so beating them is great for multiple reasons.

Leury Garcia isn’t as popular of a player amongst the fans because he isn’t considered one of the stars. He is a depth player on this team but he has been great in multiple different roles. When Nick Madrigal went down, he played some really good second base. When Tim Anderson took some time, he was great at shortstop. He has also played a lot of outfield this season as well so you know he is versatile.

Tony La Russa comes to the defense of his Chicago White Sox players if needed.

Someone referred to Garcia as a utility player in the postgame on Sunday and Tony La Russa didn’t like it. He corrected them and told them how he really feels about Leury. He made sure to note that he doesn’t want to hear anyone call him a utility player anymore.

This is good. Tony La Russa took his criticism early this season but he has been a great manager this year. He comes to the defense of his players and he puts them in a position to succeed. Not every decision is going to be perfect but they all have a purpose when made.

Garcia has been one of Chicago’s best players over the last few weeks. With all of the injuries that they have sustained, it is good to have a guy like him that plays every position well. With Tim Anderson coming back and Adam Engel on the way, nobody should be surprised if Garcia still sees a fair amount of time. Hopefully, he shows up big in the playoffs too.