(670 The Score) In the White Sox’s most important game of the season to date, manager Tony La Russa curiously didn’t use star reliever Michael Kopech in an eventual 9-4 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of their American League Division Series on Friday despite his team holding a lead in the fifth inning and being locked in a tie into the seventh.
Afterward, La Russa made clear that Kopech wasn’t being saved for later in the series but also suggested there was a specific type of situation the team was looking to use him in Friday. The White Sox fell behind 2-0 in the best-of-five series with the setback.
“We were going to play the game today, and if we had needed him to win the game, we would’ve pitched him,” La Russa told reporters in his postgame press conference. “But whatever happens on Sunday, we got his length there. That’s another big asset for us. He didn’t have to waste it. He could’ve pitched an inning today and still been available, but he’ll be more available (now).”
The White Sox haven’t announced their Game 3 starter for Sunday, though La Russa has said it will be right-hander Dylan Cease or left-hander Carlos Rodon. Neither is the type to do real deep into games, so the belief is Kopech will be asked to carry a significant workload.
After the White Sox took a 4-2 lead in the top of the fifth Friday, La Russa sent right-hander Lucas Giolito back out to the mound in the bottom half. He walked two of the first three batters of the frame, and La Russa then turned to reliever Garrett Crochet against Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez to create a lefty-lefty matchup.
“You watch the inning develop,” La Russa said of why he chose to pull Giolito with two runners on and one out. “He pitched really well. He walks the leadoff guy with a two-run lead. And then there was another walk. He did get (Michael) Brantley, who hit the ball hard some place, and then he walked (Alex) Bregman. He had given us what he could. I liked the matchup of one of our lefties against Alvarez, and he walks him. So that’s the way I looked at it.”
Crochet walked Alvarez to load the bases, then Astros first baseman Yuli Gurrielf followed with a two-run single to tie it 4-4.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, La Russa turned to lefty reliever Aaron Bummer to open the inning against the top of the Astros’ order. Three of the first four batters of the inning singled, giving Houston a 5-4 lead. La Russa went with Bummer because the Astros had lefties in the No. 2 spot in Brantley and the No. 4 hole in Alvarez. The Astros then exploded for four more runs after Craig Kimbrel relieved Bummer.
“They got two of them right there hitting second and fourth,” La Russa said of going with Bummer to create a pair of lefty-lefty matchups. “They crush, you can see what Brantley does against right-handers. It’s lethal. Our left-handers can get right-handers out. They’ve been doing it all year long, but they also get left-handers out.
“Bummer – and this is my two cents – what kind of hits did they get? They got groundball hits … They hit the ball on the ground, which is the way he pitches it … They put the ball in play. You got to give them credit.
I give them credit. I give our club a lot of credit. We were right there. We played as hard as we could and as good as we could.”