White Sox fans should be furious at Tony La Russa for latest dumb move

White Sox manager Tony La Russa made a jaw-dropping blunder against the Dodgers by intentionally walking Trea Turner on a 1-2 count.

Tony La Russa has forgotten more about baseball than most MLB fans know. Unfortunately, he’s forgotten some pretty sensible strategies as well.

White Sox fans were given yet another reason to bemoan the decision-making of their manager against the Dodgers on Thursday when he made the head-scratching decision to intentionally walk Trea Turner on a 1-2 count.

La Russa paid for that one immediately. Max Muncy hit a three-run homer to add to the Dodgers’ lead and make the White Sox manager look like an absolute fool.

White Sox fans should be furious at Tony La Russa for latest dumb move

Muncy even let him know it.

The problem with La Russa’s decision was how ridiculous it was on every level.

Intentional walks are part of the game. Sometimes they come back to bite you, but there’s a time and place for them. This wasn’t it.

First, Turner was one strike away from going down. Sure, he had hit a single in the fifth to drive in a run but it wasn’t like he was on a hot streak. He grounded out in his first two at-bats.

Meanwhile, Muncy doubled on his last at-bat to score two in that same inning. The lefty-on-lefty matchup made sense, just not when Turner was sitting on two strikes and Muncy was just as dangerous.

Stats guys like Joe Sheehan tried to find if anyone had ever intentionally walked a batter on a 1-2 count with no luck. So this may have been the first time it’s ever happened. That’s how bold a decision it was.

It was definitely costly as the White Sox went on to lose by two runs.