Who says trading for Yonder Alonso hoping he could help recruit Manny Machado, his brother-in-law, but then ultimately telling him how nice San Diego is, would be a complete waste!
Alonso came through with a walk-off, two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Orioles 7-6 Wednesday night.
The White Sox were on the verge of an embarrassing double header sweep and a second series loss to the Orioles, but Alonso lined a single to left, scoring two runs to give the White Sox another walk off victory this home stand.
Not only did Alonso send White Sox fans home happy, but he bailed out Tim Anderson too.
There’s no denying Anderson has been amazing at the plate through April, but his defense at shortstop leaves a lot to be desired.
Before Alonso’s heroics, Baltimore took the lead in the seventh inning with help from not one, but two Anderson errors. Both came on what could have been double plays.
The first happened with a slow grounder going underneath Anderson’s glove with no one out in the seventh and a runner at first.
Then, after Aaron Bummer recorded a strikeout, the White Sox had a chance at a 4-6-3 double play, but Dwight Smith Jr. had an excellent slide at second base. Anderson avoided any contact, but in doing so was forced to make an off balanced throw and that ended up sailing away from Alonso at first base.
The Orioles scored and went up 6-5.
That’s now eight errors for Anderson this season, on pace for almost 50 which is an absurd number.
Anderson’s defense has been subpar since coming up with the White Sox in 2016, but this year it seems to have gotten worse. Look at any traditional or advanced stat and Anderson ranks near the bottom in every one.
It makes you think going back to the offseason, when the White Sox seemed dead set on moving Yoan Moncada to third base and they were obviously trying to sign Machado. Were they getting ready to move Anderson over to second base? Or even give him a look in center field?
Anderson definitely has the bat to be starting, but at what point do the White Sox pull the plug with him at shortstop if his defense doesn’t take a significant step in the right direction?
