One bad game won’t decide White Sox start Andre Rienzo’s status with the team, manager Robin Ventura said Monday.
After all, Monday’s 10-8 loss to the Houston Astros was bad for almost all the Sox.
–The Sox collected 14 hits, including four by Alejandro De Aza. But De Aza made a bad decision in the first straying from third base on a ground ball to pitcher Brett Oberholtzer, who threw him out.
–Avisail Garcia was back in the lineup after his Sunday collision with the right field fence, and had a single in the second. But his fielding error in the top of the inning allowed two unearned runs to score. He struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth to end the game.
–Addison Reed hadn’t allowed a run in 13 straight innings, and he had two outs in the ninth in an 8-8 tie with Matt Dominguez and Chris Carter hit back-to-back homers to decide the game.
–Rienzo was coming off a good first major league win in Kansas City, but gave up seven runs (five earned) on nine hits, three of them homers, with two wild pitches–one allowing a run to score.
“It wasn’t pretty, but I’m not going to judge anybody by tonight,” Ventura said.
“Tough night for me, for the team,” Rienzo said. “Terrible game for me. I’m glad [Ventura] won’t judge me. It was completely my fault tonight.”
Adam Dunn and Jeff Keppinger homered for the Sox, but the team also stranded seven.
“We look good one series and then do something like this,” Reed said. “They did everything they could to get me in the game, and I hung a slider to Dominguez. It was on me.”
Or on the team.
“All around, it was just a pretty ugly game of baseball,” catcher Josh Phegley said. “Both teams offenses showed up and put runs on the board, but you gotta be sharper on defense and pitching.”
