Chicago White Sox's La Russa prevails in his first game vs. Cardinals
Tony La Russa has tried keeping a low profile since returning to the dugout as White Sox manager following a nine-year retirement.
There's an old saying in the game that the baseball always seems to find you when the pressure's on, and the spotlight has certainly found La Russa over the first two months of the season.
Last Monday, Yermin Mercedes swung at a 3-0 pitch with two outs in the ninth inning at Minnesota. The Sox were leading the Twins 15-4 before Mercedes hit a home run, and La Russa is still catching heat for publicly criticizing the rookie designated hitter.
A week later, La Russa was in the news again.
This time, his ties to the visiting Cardinals was the focal point.
"I know they're going to take their best shot and we've got to take ours," La Russa said. "But I know it's a different series."
In the first of three interleague games against St. Louis on Monday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox beat the Cardinals 5-1 in front of a crowd of 14,629.
Before this year, La Russa's last game as a manager was Oct. 28, 2011. That's the day St. Louis defeated Texas in Game 7 of the World Series.
In a battle of first-place teams in the AL and NL Central on Monday, La Russa managed against the Cardinals for the first time in his 34-year Hall of Fame career, a span of 5,142 games.
"It's uncomfortable," La Russa said. "It's distracting so what you've got to do, you've got 200 outs, you're glad when the three games are over. I'd rather not get into emotions except to say I'll be glad when it's over."
La Russa was certainly glad to see the Sox's offense perk up after scoring just 5 total runs while being swept by the Yankees in New York over the weekend.
Trailing St. Louis 1-0 in the sixth inning, the White Sox broke out with 4 runs. Andrew Vaughn got the rally going with a 2-run homer off Cardinals starter Kwang Hyun Kim and Tim Anderson followed with a 2-run double off reliever Daniel Ponce De Leon.
Vaughn continues to evolve in his rookie season, and he also hit a home run off Yankees closer Adrolis Chapman on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
"You've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable," said Vaughn, who has hit all 4 of his homers in his last 13 games. "This is the top stage, the best pitchers against the best hitters. You just go in there and put your best swing on their best pitch and see who comes out on top."
Lance Lynn, who played for La Russa as a rookie with the Cardinals in 2011, had his best start of May for the White Sox.
The 34-year-old righty was overly pleased after pitching 7 innings and allowing 1 run on 3 hits before giving way to Michael Kopech.
"I'm not going to lie to you that was probably the most satisfying I've ever had in my career, not counting the playoffs," said Lynn, who spent his first six seasons with St. Louis. "I enjoyed it quite a bit, beating them. It's one of the teams I did not have a major-league win against, and now I do and I definitely enjoy it."