If you’re a Chicago White Sox fan and you still have a lot of hope that this team is going to turn it around quickly, then hats off to you because you are by far more optimistic than most White Sox fans at this point. And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, it looked like Eloy Jiménez wanted to fight Luis Robert Jr. last night in Toronto.
The White Sox lost their sixth game in a row, losing 7-0 against the Blue Jays Tuesday night, dropping to 7-17 this season. During the game, Robert Jr. made two catches in right-center/right field, basically taking them away from Jiménez’s glove on both occasions. After the second time it happened, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Jiménez looked extremely annoyed at Robert Jr., who made the catch in straight away right field.
The White Sox should consider themselves lucky that there wasn’t an injury after either of these near collisions.
We all know that Robert Jr. is a stud on defense and he can get to almost every ball, but that second play would piss off anyone playing right field. Yeah, Eloy laughed it off at first, but he wasn’t done talking to his teammate about it after the inning.
And you know what, I think this was actually a great sign from Jiménez, who didn’t just pout. He took out the tablet out, pulled up the video and continued to talk things out with Robert Jr. in the dugout.
I’ll give Robert Jr. the benefit of the doubt on the first play. That ball was in the gap and as a center fielder, as long as you’re calling for it, the other guys have to get out of the way. Fine, you hate to see it, but miscommunication happens. However, the second play? C’mon, that is 100 percent Eloy’s play to make in right field.
What exactly is Robert Jr. trying to prove there? But the crazy part about how things went down in Toronto on Tuesday is that from their track records, the White Sox probably encourage Robert Jr. to try and catch every single fly ball that he can get to on Eloy’s side of the field because this has been happening for years.
The White Sox even made a bobblehead of it!
Of course, White Sox fans aren’t laughing about it now.
Fans love to shit on Eloy’s defense in the outfield and that criticism has been more than earned after he’s gotten injured multiple times because of dumb plays, but those two near accidents against the Blue Jays weren’t all his fault. That was on Robert Jr., who probably thinks he didn’t do anything wrong.
Jiménez is back at DH for Wednesday’s series finale against the Blue Jays.
The end of April is not going to get any easier for the White Sox, as they head back to Chicago tonight and begin a four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays tomorrow. After that, the first-place Minnesota Twins come to the south side for a three-game series to start the month of May.
