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Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable has done a tremendous job in his first season with the club, with many fine moments throughout the season.
However, in the White Sox’s 8-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Rate Field on Friday, Venable did not have one of his finer moments, as he forgot a key rule and cost his team dearly.
Just four batters into the game, White Sox starting pitcher Noah Schultz had loaded the bases, drawing a mound visit from pitching coach Zach Bove. One batter later, left fielder Angel Martinez ripped a two-run single.
Venable then went to the mound to talk about an appeal play but forgot that he wasn’t allowed to do so.
Under official rule 5.10(l), “a manager or coach is allowed only one visit to the mound per pitcher in a single inning without penalty. If the same coach or manager makes a second visit to the same pitcher in the same inning, the pitcher must be removed from the pitching position.”
Venable’s visit to the mound meant that he had to remove Schultz from the game just five batters in. His gaffe was especially costly, because the team lost in 13 innings the night before and taxed its bullpen.
Venable’s blunder meant that his already taxed bullpen was going to have to work 8 2/3 innings. David Sandlin, who replaced Schultz, hadn’t even begun throwing in the bullpen when Venable went to the pitcher’s mound; he was just getting loose and stretching.
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While Venable said after the game that Schultz was not going to pitch long in the game anyway, he certainly would have lasted more than the five batters he faced if it weren’t for Venable’s mound visit. The 43-year-old manager took full responsibility for his error.
“Yeah, just an inexcusable mistake by me where we had an appeal play that we wanted to execute, and in the urgency of trying to make that happen, just totally lost that we had visited,” Venable said, according to MLB.com. “Obviously that was a mistake. So, just messed it up.”
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Sandlin, who was callup from Triple-A before the game, ended saving the bullpen, as he pitched 5 1/3 innings on 96 pitches. While the circumstances of his entering the game were odd, he didn’t make any excuses.
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“I got a little extra time out there,” Sandlin said. “I think I got about eight pitches in the ‘pen and then got to warm up out there. Can’t make any excuses, just have to get going. Felt good enough and started off great.”
For the White Sox, it was their fourth straight loss, making them the last team in baseball to have a four-game losing streak this season. They had not lost more than three in a row before Friday.
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The White Sox (59-56) will look to bounce back in the second game of their three-game series against their American League Central foe, the Guardians (58-59), on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. ET.
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