Chicago White Sox: The cautionary tale of Manny Banuelos

On Saturday, Manny Banuelos was dominant for the Chicago White Sox. Then, in a flash, he was a batting practice pitcher.

Saturday night was an interesting one for Chicago White Sox pitcher Manny Banuelos. He was matched up against the Boston Red Sox, a team that had started the season slowly, but had begun to show signs of life, winning four of their previous five games heading into Saturday’s contest. As Banuelos was making just his third start of the season, he had quite the difficult task before him.

Yet, at the beginning of the game, Banuelos appeared to be more than up to the task. He set down the first eight batters he faced, a fairly remarkable showing. While it was far too early to be thinking perfect game or no hitter, Banuelos was cruising through the Red Sox lineup.

Then, with two outs in the top of the third, everything fell apart. Christian Vazquez singled up the middle, and Andrew Benintendi followed with another base hit. A Mookie Betts double brought in both runners. From that point, the floodgates were open.

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By the time that Banuelos was mercifully given the hook, there were still two outs in the top of the third. By that time, he had allowed ten consecutive hits, including home runs to Xander Bogaerts, Michael Chavis, and Eduardo Nunez. That 1-0 advantage had turned into a 9-1 deficit.

In a day and age where pitch counts matter, and teams are carrying more relievers than ever before, it is amazing that Banuelos was allowed to face those ten batters. The White Sox also have Dylan Covey and Carson Fulmer in the bullpen, both of which are capable of providing multiple innings of relief if need be.

Perhaps manager Rick Renteria was hoping to salvage some outs and prevent undue wear on his bullpen. Or, perhaps he was hoping that Banuelos, who had carried a 2.70 ERA and had struck out 19 batters in his 20 innings, would find his way once again. Those hopes never materialized.

In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, Manny Banuelos went from dominant to throwing batting practice. Once that happened, the Chicago White Sox did not stand a chance.