You may recall White Sox manager Robin Ventura had this to say after Zach Putnam bailed out Jake Petricka with two outs in the ninth inning Saturday for his second save in as many days:
"Unfortunately, I don't have a guy that you're just going to leave out there, saying that's your closer," Ventura said.
But the second half of that quote may actually say more:
"I like Put's swing-and-miss ability with some lefties, and that's the reason."
"Put," of course, is Putnam, who struck out left-handed hitter Jason Castro with two runners on to secure the save Saturday. But looking back on it, the most interesting part of Putnam bailing out Petricka is that it happened immediately after the second out, not after the second runner reached base. If a right-handed hitter was due up instead of Castro, Ventura may have just let Petricka finish out the inning.
Which explains why Ventura went back to Petricka in the ninth inning Monday. Two right-handed hitters were due up.
After weeks of trying to discern what's happening at the back end of the White Sox bullpen, we may finally have an answer: It's a lefty-righty platoon. Considering they're not so great individually anyway, perhaps you should leave both Putnam and Petricka for the deepest of Rotisserie leagues.