Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Maybe the White Sox should pitch around Josh Donaldson ...

Josh Donaldson
Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson has homered in each of his past five games against the White Sox.

For his career against Chicago, Donaldson has posted a .344/.407/.725 slash line with 14 home runs, eight doubles and 34 RBIs in 35 games.

That's enough production in enough of a sample size to get my attention, and it should get the attention of the Sox coaching staff.

Donaldson continued his mastery of the Sox on Tuesday night, going 2 for 4 with a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored and a walk in Toronto's 14-5 victory.

The score is a little bit misleading -- the Blue Jays broke open a 7-5 game with seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Toronto was ahead for most of the night, although the Sox remained within striking distance until the last two innings.

It was frustrating that the Sox allowed Donaldson to hurt them twice while the outcome still was in doubt. On two occasions, Donaldson came to the plate with two outs, first base open and a man in scoring position. Both times, the Sox opted to pitch to Donaldson. Both times they paid.

The Jays' third baseman hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Miguel Gonzalez to increase a 4-2 Toronto lead to 6-2. In the seventh inning against Hector Santiago, Donaldson hit an RBI single off the top of the left field fence to move the Jays' lead from 6-4 to 7-4. Another foot higher and it would have been Donaldson's second two-run homer of the game.

There probably isn't any circumstance in which the Sox would have won Tuesday anyway. Gonzalez was poor, allowing six runs (five earned) over five innings. Santiago, Greg Infante and Juan Minaya combined on a preposterous bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning that erased any hope of a Sox comeback.

However, if the Sox happen to be in a close game in Wednesday's series finale against Toronto, I have a word to the wise: Make somebody other than Donaldson beat you.

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