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The reflection of the performance by the Dodgers bullpen in Game 2 of the NLDS is entirely skewed by a dismal offensive showing, making it extremely unlikely the home team could secure a 2-0 series lead. A rabbit hole exists for those who favor a pessimistic outlook, with Chris Sale starting the next game fully rested. Before raising major concerns about the future of this National League Division Series, the Dodgers’ bullpen’s work must be addressed as a positive from this last game; even if it may ultimately be attributed to the loss, it was the most blameless of the three units (starter, relievers, hitters).

Blake Snell’s inability to get a rhythm at any point cost him in length if not in actual runs—the left-hander couldn’t even get out of the fourth, leaving the Dodgers bullpen to cover 19 outs as they trailed 1-0. Snell’s line could’ve been worse, but he had the bullpen to thank for keeping Atlanta at just one, as Brock Stewart was effective in a pivotal spot, retiring Ronald Acuña Jr. with two men on. Given where Snell was, having walked two in his final inning, it’d be no stretch to contemplate Acuña doing damage off him in that spot.

Unlike the Braves, who nearly rode the Didier Fuentes train all the way to a four-inning save, the Dodgers distributed their bullpen innings quite evenly. Roki Sasaki was the one of six relievers to cover more than just a single frame.

Through those 6.1 innings, Dodger relievers allowed a pair of runs, first on an unfortunate wild pitch by Kris Bubic with a runner on third, enough to score a run that would not have come in without it—a few innings later, with a two-out double from Michael Harris II off Edgardo Henríquez to drive in Matt Olson. It wasn’t perfection, far from it, but Stewart, Evan Phillips, Edwin Díaz, and company were effective. If they deliver an outing such as this one whenever they’re called upon earlier than usual and the team doesn’t win, it is entirely down to the offense’s shortcomings.

Acuña stranding a pair in the fourth after Snell left the game was just the first wasted moment for the Braves offense—there were a few more in which Dodger relievers came through to keep this a close game until the end. Even without allowing a hit, Roki Sasaki created quite a mess for himself with walks and hit-by-pitches; his effectiveness and a bit of luck saw him through two scoreless innings, including a bases-loaded double play to end the inning against Acuña. And that’s probably the best way to emphasize how strong of a bullpen performance this was: in three at-bats against the Dodgers’ bullpen, Acuña had a combined total of five players on base, and he didn’t drive in a single run—play these numbers again, and the result is probably different.

The way in which the Dodgers create bullpen depth by maximizing their resources might not be as obvious as with the rotation or lineup, but it doesn’t mean it is any less effective. Lower and lower on the leverage ladder, you’re still getting quality innings from imposing relievers.

The baseball world was captivated by left-handed pitching prospect Jim Abbott ahead of the 1988 major league draft mostly because he didn’t have a right hand. Seven teams passed on him before the Angels picked him.

Why? Largely because Angels scouting director Bob Fontaine Jr. ignored the potential limitations that others fixated on when evaluating Abbott. Rather than dwelling on the absence of a right hand, Fontaine saw something wondrous coming out of Abbott’s left hand — a cut fastball.

“He’s actually more suited to the pro game than the amateurs with the aluminum bats,” Fontaine told The Times after the draft. “He’s going to be breaking off a lot of these wood bats with that cut fastball.”

As usual, Fontaine, who died Saturday at age 73, was prophetic in his assessment. Abbott became the rare pitcher to go straight from college — he’d starred at Michigan — to the major leagues, skipping the minors entirely and enjoying a 10-year MLB career while inspiring numerous fans in disabled communities.

“I think every scout, if they scout for any length of time, is going to have one player that just is special to you. Jimmy Abbott was that,” Fontaine told JapanBall in 2022. “There were people that were even kind of saying, ‘Oh, they did it for a publicity stunt.’ I remember saying, ‘Yeah, we took the eighth player in the country for a publicity stunt? Give us some credit!

Fontaine was showered with plenty of posthumous credit over the weekend. He scouted for six teams, and a highlight of his resume was drafting the nucleus of the Angels roster that won the 2002 World Series.

“What a character ... what a storyteller ... and what a talent evaluator ... there is no 2002 World Series title for the #Angels without Bob Fontaine Jr. ... RIP,” wrote former longtime Times baseball writer Mike Digiovanna on X.

What a character ... what a storyteller ... and what a talent evaluator ... there is no 2002 World Series title for the #Angels without Bob Fontaine Jr. ... RIP https://t.co/1eHIStuWWY

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) October 5, 2026

“Crushed regarding Bob Fontaine Jr.’s passing, as he was a special man who I was lucky to work closely with three times @WhiteSox @Mariners, and @BlueJays. Fun as hell, elite evaluator, and phenomenal people skills. RIP, Robert,” added former Dodgers general manager Dan Evans.

“A gifted talent evaluator and mentor, Bob helped shape generations of Angels by overseeing the signing and development of numerous Halos, including Jim Abbott, Jim Edmonds, Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad,” the Angels said in a statement. “Bob left a lasting mark on baseball by devoting over five decades to the game. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”

The Angels frustrated Fontaine at times by declining to spend big on players from talent-rich Latin America. Rather than sulk, however, he scoured the globe, in 1992 signing three players from Russia and a fast-pitch softball player from New Zealand named Gus Leger.

Asked by The Times’ Bill Shaikin if he had ever played baseball, Leger responded, “I haven’t. Would it help?”

The experiment failed — none of the quartet advanced beyond Class-A — yet Fontaine maintained the sunny outlook he inherited from his father. Bob Fontaine Sr. was a scout who worked under the legendary Branch Rickey with the Brooklyn Dodgers before becoming scouting director of the Pittsburgh Pirates for 18 years and the first scouting director of the expansion franchise San Diego Padres. He also served as general manager of the Padres from 1977-1980.

Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers need to drop the entitlement and learn to fear the Atlanta Braves

“[My father] told me when I got started, ‘Don’t you ever, ever not appreciate where you are and what you’re doing, because you’re lucky. You’re going to a ballpark to make a living, so your bad days aren’t that bad,’” Fontaine Jr. said. “I never forgot that, I never forgot how lucky I am.

“Hey, you’re looking at a guy that barely squeaked through high school, who doesn’t have any ability, and I lasted almost 50 years. It’s because in baseball, if you listen, and you’re not afraid to take a chance once in a while, even somebody with my lack of ability can stay around for a while,” he said.

Fontaine got his foot in the door through his father. His first job as a teenager was as a minor league bat boy with the Pirates. Next he became a peanut vendor at Forbes Field. By age 19, he caught on with the Padres as an area scout.

Both Fontaines were scouts well ahead of the deep empirical and objective analysis of baseball data — sabermetrics is the catch-all term — that some believe has made scouts obsolete. Fontaine maintained the best evaluations come when scouting is utilized along with numbers.

“What the traditional scout gives you is personal reference, like with things I learned on players that I missed on,” he said. “Analytics didn’t do that. I’m a firm believer that the best video camera is your eyes, the best model is your brain, and the best way to make a tough decision is with your heart.”

Fontaine’s methods produced results. Under his guidance in 1977, the Padres drafted future Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith in the fourth round. Four years later Fontaine plucked another future Hall of Famer, taking outfielder Tony Gwynn in the third round.

And when Fontaine moved to the Montreal Expos in 1985, he took a 6-foot-11 left-handed pitcher out of USC named Randy Johnson in the second round — another Hall of Famer.

Fontaine co-authored a memoir in 2021, “In Search of Millionaires (The Life of a Baseball Gypsy): The Accounts of Bob Fontaine Jr.”

“Baseball has provided me with a fabulous opportunity to see the world and work in an industry that most people envy,” he wrote in the book. “I didn’t get rich, except in experiences. To meet and work against so many fine people, as well as some great general managers and owners, has been a privilege.”

Times sports columnist Bill Shaikin contributed to this story.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Chad Tracy aggressively takes blame for Red Sox' bullpen decisions vs. Yankees originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

In Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, manager Chad Tracy pulled starter Payton Tolle with two outs and nobody on base in the fifth inning, opting to utilize Erik Miller to face Ben Rice. The Yankees’ DH turned Miller’s third pitch around for a 423-foot shot to center field, doubling New York’s lead to 2-0.

A night later, in Game 2, Tracy once again strode to the mound with two outs in the fifth inning, this time with runners on the corners. Tracy took the ball from veteran starter Sonny Gray and gave it to … Miller. Cody Bellinger sent Miller’s third pitch into right field, plating a run to once again turn a 1-0 lead into a 2-0 advantage.

Considering that Tracy pulled both starters long before their pitch counts had run high, and considering he went to the same reliever who was extremely ineffective in September after being acquired in a high-profile trade at the deadline, many observers simply assumed that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow played a role in dictating when and where the lefty reliever was going to be used.

Speaking at an end-of-season press conference on Monday, though, Tracy fought vehemently to take the blame for the decisions.

“I’ll answer that,” Tracy said when Breslow was asked about how much input the front office had on in-game decisions. “None. The decisions are mine. We have information just like all the other 29 teams have information. Everybody has that. But as far as, and I’ve said this before, like, since I’ve been here, do I sit in the office and talk through who’s available — you know, throughout the entire season — who’s available today, what’s the best way to deploy them, who’s down? Every single day you do that. But not one time since I’ve been here has anybody scripted a game, has anybody told me use this number right here to decide in this inning.

“Those decisions, they’re mine,” he continued. “So as far as that specific one, my decision, that didn’t — obviously didn’t go great. That falls on me. But there is nothing — do we have data analytics? Of course we do. Everybody does. Is somebody standing there pushing me saying you need to do this, this, this and this? Absolutely not.”

While Tolle — a rookie — spoke diplomatically both after Game 1 and Game 2, Gray was much more direct.

“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order the third time. I think that’s a fact,” Gray told reporters after the season-ending loss. “I would have liked to been trusted in that moment.”

Gray, who’s set to become a free agent, was asked if he’d like to play in Boston again next season. His answer of “I don’t know” spoke volumes.

Tracy denied having any issues with Gray, despite the decision to pull him after just 70 pitches and one run allowed.

“I didn’t suspect most starters, especially in that case, that guys are going to be happy with being pulled. I thought he answered the questions that were asked of him in a very professional manner. And yes, I have had a chance to talk to him,” Tracy said. “The relationship there is good.

“Do I think he was wanting to stay out there? Quite obviously. But five months of relationship-building with players, and I think there’s some things that get painted sometimes like that that’s stained it or ruined it. It’s like, no, I have a very good working relationship with him and I’ve had numerous conversations with him throughout the course of the year. But yeah, I was able to talk to him. It’s in a fine place, while also understanding his feelings on it.”

When questioned about whether his decisions are based on a feel for the game or raw data, Tracy offered a bit of a confusing response. The first-time manager argued that he didn’t pull Gray out of concern for the pitcher’s effectiveness the third time through the order, which was not an accusation that anyone — even Gray — made.

“I’d push back a little bit on just specifically saying third time through the order. If I was so reliant and worried about that, I probably would have made a move at [leadoff hitter] Ben Rice,” Tracy said. “That was the first guy that would have been third time through the order and that guy has 42 home runs. So there’s a lot of things that get put out there. That would have been the third time through the order.”

Gray, who posted a 1.99 ERA and allowed an opponents’ OPS of just .515 the third time facing a lineup this year, merely pointed out how effective he was in those situations. Nobody said that Gray facing the lineup for a third time was Tracy’s motivation for pulling his starter. That information, presented by Gray himself, merely made the case that Gray had a better chance of getting the final out of the fifth inning than Miller.

As for Miller, he made a strong first impression after joining Boston as the return in the Marcelo Mayer trade, not allowing an earned run in his first 10 appearances. But his effectiveness and control dipped significantly, as he walked nine batters over 6.1 innings to start September, posting an 8.53 ERA and 2.368 WHIP during that seven-game stretch.

Despite that major slide, Tracy said he trusted Miller based largely on his final outing of the regular season.

“Well his last outing here at Fenway was exceptional,” Tracy said. “So he obviously fought it for much of September. The last outing here at Fenway, even then prior to an extended side session was very good. But his last outing was good.”

That outing came on Sept. 24, the final game of the Red Sox’ series against the Guardians. Miller retired Cleveland’s sixth, seventh and eighth hitters in order, striking out one and throwing seven strikes on eight pitches. That lone outing, according to Tracy, outweighed the eight shaky appearances that preceded it.

Gray has more than 2,000 innings of big league experience and was making the playoff start over Ranger Suarez (statistically one of the best playoff pitchers in baseball history) as a reward for Gray having one of the best regular seasons of his career. Tracy said he trusted Gray, despite pulling him out of that moment.

“Believe me, I see both sides. I don’t need to get too deep into defending this or that, because I certainly could have gone the other way with that, and that could have gone well and we wouldn’t even be having the conversation,” Tracy said. “But I do, I do trust Sonny Gray, and I do trust the guys in the bullpen as well. So again, I think the easiest way to say it is like, it was my call, it was my decision. It went south. Here we are.”

Tracy made sure to drive home the statement that he alone is responsible for making such decisions.

“The biggest thing for me coming into this [press conference] was maybe dispelling any notion of people thinking that decisions get made prior to the game or with a piece of paper or with a computer,” he said. “If I can do anything just to dispel that and say those decisions are always going to fall on me. I’m the one that has to answer the questions. And it’s just not the case. And I can speak highly of Bres in that he’s never — nobody has ever come in and done that. We do have information. We look at it completely holistically, try to do that. Different games present different scenarios. But that’s my call.”

The Dodgers offense didn’t look right in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.

In a 3-2 loss against the Braves on Sunday, the Dodgers scored two runs off homers from Max Muncy and Freddie Freeman. But Freeman made note of the lineup’s issue in a defeat that evened the playoff series.

“Gotta find a way to score some runs without hitting a home run. So, I think that’s our biggest thing right now,” Freeman said as the Dodgers head to Atlanta for a pivotal Game 3.

The Dodgers lineup has been entirely reliant on the long ball. All six of LA’s runs in the NLDS have come via the home run ball. While it’s certainly more entertaining for fans to see players go yard, it can also lead to a lack of quality at-bats with runners in scoring position.

That is a problem the Yankees have seemingly faced for years. In turn, that has led to the lack of recent championships from the 27-time World Series winning franchise.

On Sunday, the Dodgers endured just that and went 0-for-8 with RISP.

The Dodgers will deploy Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Game 3 with Chris Sale set to be opposite the World Series MVP. The matchup is slated to be a pitcher’s duel, but the Dodgers offense will have to get back to playing small ball in order to generate more traffic on the bases against Sale.

The offensive drought from the Dodgers in Game 2 was telling and the group will have to make corrections in what is now set to be a three-game series between LA and Atlanta. Yamamoto on the mound gives the Dodgers the best chance of winning given the right-hander’s road splits this year, 1.77 ERA and 0.82 WHIP.

But the Dodgers lineup will also have to do its part, which will be its biggest postseason challenge yet against the Braves ace.

Sale tossed a complete game shutout against Los Angeles in August.

Injuries were prominent theme of Red Sox year-end press conference originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox held their end-of-season press conference Monday, and there was a lot of talk about injuries.

The Red Sox had a ton of key players miss time due to injuries this season. The most frustrating part of that was how poorly some of the injuries appeared to have been handled. The Red Sox downplayed the severity of some of them, only for the player to miss more games than expected.

Garrett Crochet, the team’s ace and best pitcher, was originally placed on the 15-day injured list in late April with a shoulder issue. He wasn’t expected to be out a long time. But he didn’t pitch again until Game 2 of the Wild Card series versus the New York Yankees last week.

It was a five-month absence.

“It’s difficult to articulate in that I think, from a ‘what was the diagnosis, what was going on here?’, I do think that not a whole lot had changed over the course of the four or five months that he was injured in that at the time he was pitching, there was some discomfort, but he didn’t feel like this was going to be the type of injury that was going to last as long as it did,” Breslow said.

“The imaging that we got just revealed some irritation and strain to the shoulder, but as we started to kind of peel back the layers, it made more and more sense to make sure we were getting this right for the long term, as opposed to just getting him back on the field as quickly as we could.”

The Red Sox eventually decided to take a more cautious approach with Crochet and not risk long-term damage to his shoulder.

“There maybe could have been an opportunity to get him back on the field in what would have been an accelerated timeline, but it would have required unnecessary risk to do so, and potentially have longer-term implications,” Breslow said. “So we wanted to make sure that we had checked every box as it related to his return to play, and get his shoulder strength back up to where it was, or even better than it was at any point in 2025 when he pitched a full, healthy season.”

The good news on Crochet is that he enters the offseason “fully healthy”, Breslow said.

And then there was Roman Anthony. There were a lot of questions about Anthony’s hand injury, the rehab he underwent and what the future outlook is for him.

Breslow said that rest, not surgery, is needed for the injury to heal.

“I think we had a pretty good understanding of what the diagnosis was and that Roman was very confident he could contribute, and over the course of a game there would be a swing or two that might give him — he’d describe it as a bit of a zinger, and a few seconds later that feeling would subside,” Breslow said. “We wanted to balance Roman’s desire to get on the field and compete and his ability to help us win games with making sure we were doing the medically responsible thing and not trying to put him in any greater danger.”

Anthony wasn’t able to finish Game 1 of the Yankees series. After a couple checked swings, he re-aggravated the hand injury. He did not play in Game 2.

Breslow was also asked why Anthony didn’t get any new imaging done during his ramp-up period (or around the time he started his rehab assignment in mid-August), to make sure the injury was healing as planned.

Breslow’s response didn’t make a ton of sense.

“He was making very steady progress, he was increasing the volume and intensity of the swings, so I’m not sure what we would’ve been looking for,” Breslow explained.

“Not a medical expert, but I’m not sure that an MRI would have told us how close he is to a recurrence. I think the MRI that he did have in the middle of the summer kind of showed the healing that we were looking for relative to MRIs and imaging that he had early on when the injury took place. And then I think more broadly, I think it’s important that we treat our players and not their images, and so, if players are healthy, if players are making progress, if players are stating that they’re improving and kind of the subjective treatment indicates that they’re improving, it’s not always a great idea to go get imaging, just for the sake of that, but if ever players are kind of requesting that we do imaging and feel like there’s a benefit to it, then obviously we have those conversations.”

Every team deals with injuries. It’s part of the game. But injuries were, in large part, a dominant theme for the 2026 Red Sox.

It would behoove the team to re-evaluate its training and/or treatment methods to ensure players can stay healthy and return faster going forward.

1908
White Sox pitcher Ed Walsh won his 40th game of the season, as he beat Detroit, 6-1. It was a crucial win for the team, staving off pennant elimination and drawing the South Siders to within a half-game of the first-place Tigers. With the Naps splitting their final games of the season in a doubleheader with St. Louis, Cleveland was eliminated from the fierce, three-way battle for first place. Walsh’s win set up a winner-take-all game for the pennant vs. Detroit on the final day of the season.

Walsh himself completed one of the most extraordinary seasons in major league history. His 40 wins led the majors, and is a milestone no one has matched in 114 seasons since (the closest to 40 wins has been Walter Johnson, with 36 in 1913). The 40 wins tied for 30th all-time in major league history and made him just one of two pitchers to attain the mark in the 20th Century.

Walsh led the AL in winning percentage (40-15, .727), FIP (1.42) and K/W (4.80). In addition to wins, Walsh led all of MLB in games (66), starts (49), complete games (42), shutouts (11), innings (464) and strikeouts (269). Oh, and he led the majors in saves as well, with six.

And yet Walsh clocked “just” 10.3 WAR, which doesn’t even represent the best season of his career — he topped 11 WAR in both 1910 and 1912.

1959
The Go-Go White Sox found their backs against the wall, as the Dodgers won their third straight to take Game 4 of the World Series, 5-4. L.A. struck for four runs in the third, knocking starter Early Wynn out of the box. But in the seventh inning, the White Sox fought back to tie, courtesy of a Ted Kluszewski RBI single and three-run homer from Sherm Lollar. But in the bottom of the eighth, Gil Hodges led off with a solo shot off of Gerry Staley to end all scoring and put the Dodgers up, 3-1, in the Series.

A Series-record (and overall baseball record) 92,650 fans showed up to see the Dodgers win, breaking the record set in Game 3, one day earlier.

1980
Minnie Miñoso pinch-hit for Chet Lemon to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning during a triumphant season finale for the White Sox, grounding out to third in what would stand as the final at-bat of his career. The White Sox improved to 70-90 on the season with a 5-3 win over the California Angels.

Miñoso went 0-for-2 in two appearances as a pinch-hitter in 1980, marking his fifth decade playing pro baseball, stretching back to the 1940s. “Mr. White Sox” was slated to appear in the 1990s to mark a sixth decade, but in 1990 commissioner Fay Vincent blocked the move, and in 1993 commissioner Bud Selig and AL president Bobby Brown gave the approval, but White Sox players balked.

1983
Cy Young winner LaMarr Hoyt pitched a complete game, five-hitter in beating the Orioles, 2-1, in Game 1 of the ALCS. It was the first time since divisional playoffs started in 1969 that Baltimore lost the first game of a postseason series. Unfortunately, it would be the high-water mark for the Sox in the series.

Hoyt struck out four, and lost his shutout in the ninth inning on a bloop hit by Cal Ripken Jr.  With Ripken on base, Hoytgot slugger Eddie Murray to hit a ground ball up the middle and got a glove on the ball just enough to slow it down for Scott Fletcher to field it, step on second base, record the force out and end the contest played at Memorial Stadium.

1993
Game 1 of the ALCS was an unmitigated disaster — both on and off the field for the White Sox — in front of what remains the biggest baseball crowd ever in new Sox Park (46,246).

On the field, Toronto turned Jack McDowell tipping his pitches in to 17 hits and a 7-3 rout in the first White Sox playoff game at their new park, with the Blue Jays pitching around AL MVP Frank Thomas (one single, four walks). But by the middle of the game, not one fan cared. Reports were confirmed that the Bulls were holding a press conference the next morning so that Michael Jordan (who threw out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 1) could announce his retirement from basketball. Fans at the game and around the city were in shock. 

Adding insult to injury, future Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk and Chicago native and former White Sox pitcher Donn Pall (both of whom had played for the White Sox that season) were turned away by security guards when they attempted to wish their former teammates good luck in the locker room before the game started. The White Sox claimed the rules were set by Major League Baseball, but no fan or media member was fooled by that comment. Most media members felt Fisk was turned away on explicit orders from owner Jerry Reinsdorf; it was an insult Fisk never forgot. 

Reinsdorf would then take an unprecedented step of apologizing to the team in the clubhouse before the start of Game 2, saying he had no wish to take away their spotlight because of the Jordan situation.

2005
The White Sox took a commanding lead in the the best-of-five ALDS, beating Boston, 5-4. The Red Sox had jumped to a 4-0 lead on Mark Buehrle, but Chicago put a crooked 5 up on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Aaron Rowand doubled in a run off of former White Sox villain David Wells, and one out later Joe Crede singled in Rowand to cut the Boston lead in half. Another ex-White Sox, Tony Graffanino, then flubbed a double-play grounder, turning escape from the inning for Wells into a ground ball through the legs that put runners on the corners. Wells still almost escaped, inducing Scott Podsednik into a pop foul out. But with the count even at 1-1, Tadahito Iguchi did this:

Iguchi’s blast provided a margin that held up, with Bobby Jenks pitching the final two innings for his first postseason save and just the seventh of his young career.

2008
In the postseason for the third time of the 2000s, the White Sox were on the brink of elimination in the 2008 ALDS. But behind a strong starting pitching effort from John Danks they beat Tampa Bay, 5-3, to survive another day. Danks pitched into the seventh inning, with seven strikeouts. A three-run fourth inning set the tone for the Sox in the game. Dewayne Wise continued an outstanding playoffs, with two RBIs for the Sox. 

2022
It was the end to one of the most disappointing seasons in White Sox history.

Six years earlier, GM Rick Hahn started the rebuild by saying that the franchise was “mired in mediocrity.” After the Twins pounded the Sox, 10-1, to end the 2022 campaign, the team finished … at 81-81 — the very definition of mediocrity.  

It was only the fifth time in team history the club ended a year exactly at .500.

The season was supposed to see the Sox make the postseason for a third straight year and potentially play in the World Series. Instead, the team was listless, seemed to have little sense of urgency, couldn’t stay healthy and was saddled with bizarre in-game decisions by manager Tony La Russa (who resigned before the season even ended because of serious health issues).

The year marked Year 10 under Hahn, whose track record was less than stellar: seven losing years, two winning ones and a .500 year. Under his watch, the Sox had two playoff appearances — but also two quick first round playoff exits. Not coincidentally, this would mark Hahn’s final full season in charge of the team.