(670 The Score) The last we saw the White Sox in the playoffs, an indelible image etched itself into our memories.
Rick Renteria, the Sox manager at the time, hunched over in the visiting dugout at the Oakland Coliseum with his hands on his knees and his heart in his throat for what seemed like every batter. Renteria stayed in that pose long enough for Sox fans to still easily recall, a picture of anxiety worth more than the thousands of words that described his team’s season-ending loss to the Athletics in the decisive Game 3 of the wild-card round. It’s harder to remember the score, 6-4, than the sight of Renteria looking like a linebacker braced for contact as his Sox slowly unraveled that long day by the Bay.
The Sox used a playoff record nine pitchers that dreadful game, eight after Renteria pulled starter Dane Dunning after two outs and 15 pitches. Lefty Garrett Crochet followed Dunning, pitching in the playoffs without ever having thrown a fastball in the minors. By the fifth inning, Renteria had anxiously called on his seventh Sox pitcher, marching back and forth to the mound like a power-walker trying to get to 10,000 steps.
Surely, Renteria’s bosses were pacing too. Exactly 11 days later, the Sox fired Renteria after a 35-25 season and the team’s first playoff appearance in 12 years. A good season was deemed not good enough by Sox brass, so management rid themselves of Renteria, the latest example of a nice guy finishing last. Everybody in charge denied Renteria’s handling of pitchers in the postseason led directly to his firing, but nobody presented any logical reason to doubt the connection either. To add to their argument, the Sox also quietly held Renteria responsible for presiding over a late-season lapse that carried a lax approach into the playoffs.
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By design, everything is different this October for the White Sox. Tim Anderson is still changing the game, Jose Abreu is still making RBIs relevant and Lucas Giolito is still stabilizing the pitching staff, but one year later, everything really feels different about this playoff team.
As the White Sox prepare to play the Astros in the best-of-five American League Division Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston, nobody really worries about bullpen management anymore. Nobody wonders about the Sox’s edge after they won seven of their final nine regular-season games, unlike last season when they lost seven of nine down the stretch. Nobody has reason to consider the Sox anything but a legitimate World Series contender as the postseason finally starts for a team that moved into first place of the AL Central for good on May 4 and spent a comfortable summer discovering new ways to stay focused.
Enter manager Tony La Russa. Amplifying their championship aspirations, the Sox replaced Renteria with La Russa, which is like chasing a warm glass of milk with a shot of whiskey. The Sox controversially chose La Russa’s intensity and experience over Renteria’s comfort and charm. Nothing will happen against the Astros in the next week – or, baseball gods willing, against any team the rest of October – that La Russa hasn’t seen before in the previous 128 playoff games he has managed. Put another way, barring injury, it’s hard to envision La Russa ever removing his starter in a decisive game after 15 pitches or emitting vibes of desperation in the corner of the dugout. La Russa has been there and done that, whatever the series or situation, and starting Thursday we will begin to better understand all that means.
This is why La Russa is here, to push the right buttons, emotionally and analytically. To know when to pull his starters and which reliever to call, to make defensive switches that lead to runs saved and pinch-hitting moves that produce clutch runs. To remind us that managers really do matter more in the postseason and he was worth all the fuss. To give the Sox an advantage a team managed by a guy with three World Series rings is supposed to get in October.
“I walked into a situation any manager would pay money to be in," La Russa said with humility that has been consistent and somewhat surprising to many.
None of the peripheral stuff constantly surrounding La Russa matters now. Not anymore. Not Sox general manager Rick Hahn’s reticence over hiring La Russa after chairman Jerry Reinsdorf hijacked the process. Not the valid outcry from media and fans after the revelation of La Russa’s DUI arrest in February 2020 that resulted in a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge. Not the early season gaffes, such as not knowing the extra-inning rules or sticking with a reliever too long, that revealed a manager who had been away from the dugout for a decade. Not the kerfuffle caused when La Russa, who practically wrote the foreword for baseball’s unwritten rulebook, chastised his own player, Yermin Mercedes, for hitting a home run on a 3-0 count off a position player pitching for the Twins. Not even how tired La Russa, who turned 77 Monday, occasionally looks after games or how halting his tone is during interviews.
Now, on the brink of the playoffs, nothing else matters except for the reality that La Russa evolved well enough to make a positive impact and gradually grew back into the role after being away so long. That La Russa eventually meshed surprisingly well with the hippest of Sox players, from rookies such as Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets to respected veterans like Anderson – “Tony is like the dad and we are like the bad kids who don’t listen," Anderson said – and Abreu, whose endorsement resonates strongest in the clubhouse. Those bonds helped the Sox develop a resolve as an uncanny assortment of injuries tested their resilience, the most defining characteristic of a team following its manager’s lead.
A social media video of Abreu hugging La Russa and kissing the manager on the forehead during a team party in late September offered a glimpse of how that relationship has grown. La Russa bolting out of the dugout on July 31 after Abreu was hit in the head by a 96-mph fastball thrown by Indians reliever James Karinchak, having to be restrained from going after Indians catcher Roberto Perez, stoked the manager’s competitive fire that still burns – especially now. They mocked La Russa’s stride. They made the episode into a meme. But beyond the laughter, La Russa instinctively rushing to defend the Sox's leader seriously gave players an enduring symbol of who their manager was.
Now, the Sox will take on the Astros with a roster that Hahn began rebuilding five years ago, one loaded with championship-caliber talent and depth. They boast an offense as potent as any in the playoff field with Anderson and Abreu complementing Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal et al, a starting pitching rotation compromised by injury but still capable of excellence and a deep bullpen built for the playoffs. The Sox still need to run the bases smarter, field the baseball cleaner and avoid the kind of silly mistakes that often define playoff games or series. But they will arrive in Texas mentally sharp and physically strong, a credit to the way La Russa strategically rested players and planned for baseball’s biggest month.
This Sox plan truly has been in the works for a year, the main reason La Russa returned from his baseball sabbatical. This opportunity was the bait that Reinsdorf put on the hook to lure La Russa back to the dugout. This is why the Sox loudly switched managers a year ago, to create playoff moments to remember – this time for the right reasons.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.