White Sox 4 Pirates 3

Rise and shine campers, and don't forget your booties 'cuz it's coooooold out there.
It's cold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?
Not hardly. So the question on everybody's lips...
On their chapped lips.
...their chapped lips is, does Phil feel lucky? Punksatawney Phil, that's right wood chuck chuckers, it's...
GROUNDHOG DAY!!!

I feel like I already saw this episode. Starter cruises through six, hits a wall in the seventh, Pirates lose. When it happened the first time, the Snell vs. Liriano game, I defended Tracy for leaving Snell in because at some point in his life, Ian Snell will need to learn to work out of a jam. The second time it happened to Snell, against KC (I know, this one was in the sixth, but same premise), I felt like Tracy should've been a little better prepared, simply because it had just happened and the team was slumping badly, getting a win was more important than Snell working through is problems. Tonight it really pissed me off. Maholm ran into a snag in the sixth, but Tracy waited until two guys were on to get someone up in the pen, meaning that no one was ready when the bases were loaded with no outs and Paul Maholm standing on the mound like Henry Rowengartner at the end of Rookie of the Year. I know the pen is over-worked. I want to believe what they're trying to do is build confidence in the young staff, though I'm not really sure they have a plan at all. But the point is, YOU'VE LOST TWELVE GAMES IN A ROW, YOU HAVE TO DO ANYTHING YOU CAN TO WIN. Tracy has watched his young starters hit wall after wall this year in the sixth and seventh innings, to go into the seventh tonight in a winnable game without a contingency plan was foolish. You know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a f*cking moron." Wait, I made that last part up, probably because people don't get fooled three times enough for it to be part of the saying.

While I'm at it, there was another infuriating Tracy moment tonight, on the play Craig Wilson got hurt. Craig put the tag on Iguchi, held on to the ball, fell to the ground, still held on the ball, then dropped the ball when he went to grab his injured arm. He clearly caught and controlled the ball, even after hitting the ground. Still, the ump called Iguchi safe. No harm came from it as Maholm got out of the inning, but it could've been a huge play as it kept the inning going in what was a 2-0 game at that point. Still, Tracy didn't even stick his head out of the dugout to argue the call. It was a terrible call that was potentially game changing, yet it invoked no reaction from Tracy whatsoever. If there's more proof that he's completely quit on this team, I haven't seen it.

And yes, I realize the players are playing like shit. Bay and Jack Wilson have absolutely mailed the last two weeks in. It drives me insane to watch Bay hit with two strikes because everyone on the planet knows that a low and away curve or slider that breaks out of the zone is coming and that Bay will flail helplessly at it, yet he does it every time. Castillo generally plays like he tokes up in the dugout between innings. I could go on, but Ill just piss me off even more. It's maddening.

This thirteenth consecutive loss set the modern (which in baseball means post-1900) team record. Think about that. We're talking about a franchise that was consistently putrid in the 1950s, 1980s, and since 1993, and yet no incaration of Pittsburgh Pirates has played worse than the current "team."