La Russa lineup found Luis Garcia's Achilles heel

White Sox Manager Tony LaRussa's left-leaning tendencies in setting up his lineup proved Houston starter Luis Garcia's downfall.

To face the righty with the rock-a-bye motion, La Russa packed his lineup with left-handed hitters: Yasmani Grandal, Yoan Moncada, Gavin Sheets, Leury Garcia and Cesar Hernandez.

On the bench as a result were Adam Engel and Andrew Vaughn.

It isn't difficult to figure out why La Russa crafted his lineup card that way. Righty lineups facing Garcia have a .548 OPS, while lefty lineups have a much stronger .814, higher than the league average.

During his pre-game press conference, La Russa was asked if the choice between Garcia and Engel amounted to getting in the extra lefty.

He answered, “I think so. Garcia is a good pitcher, and, you know, I think it's a better matchup for Cesar than it is for Engel or even Andrew.”

That didn't mean La Russa wasn't tempted to keep Vaughn in the mix.

He said, “Strongly considered Andrew because he has been swinging better and got a hit — hit the ball hard the other day. Today I think the matchup is better lefty.”

It was so much better that the Sox chased Garcia with two outs in the third after he threw his 68th pitch to Leury Garcia.

He ended up yielding 5 earned runs, with 3 walks and 5 hits, including a homer in the third by Grandal, who also narrowly missed hitting a ball into the right field seats in the first.

In the third, Garcia gave up hits to Moncada and Sheets, before Houston Manager Dusty Baker lifted him two pitches into Leury Garcia's at-bat.

It was a very different White Sox lineup from the one Garcia faced in his only start against the Sox on June 18.

That lineup included Brian Goodwin, Jake Lamb, Zack Collins and Danny Mendick.

Houston won that game 2-1, with Garcia striking out eight in seven innings.