Tony La Russa on Field of Dreams Game: ‘Baseball hit a grand slam’Jared Wyllyson August 15, 2021 at 12:24 am

Though he couldn’t attend the Field of Dreams Game on Thursday in Dyersville, Iowa, manager Tony La Russa was still able to watch with family. La Russa’s feelings about the event matched the sentiment across the rest of the country.

“Baseball really hit a grand slam,” La Russa said. “It turned out to be a game that you think would have been scripted on a Hollywood movie lot or something, it was amazing.”

The Field of Dreams game garnered close to 6 million television viewers, the highest for a regular season baseball game since 2005.

The dramatic finish with Tim Anderson’s walk-off home run into the corn and general energy at the game in Iowa provided a temporary shot of energy to the players. La Russa said they were overwhelmed by the excitement and buzz at the ballpark Thursday.

But coming back from that, La Russa wants his guys focusing on the rest of the series against the Yankees.

“It’s not going to help us today. If we’re still celebrating, we’ll probably lose an edge,” La Russa said. “Enjoy the moment and understand the goal is to win a series and we’re up one. Concentrate.”

Thursday night was not all positive. Liam Hendriks blew his sixth save of the season, giving up a pair of two-run homers to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Those brought his season total to 10 home runs allowed.

Hendriks has not given up 10 home runs in a season since 2013 with the Twins, but La Russa said the extra longballs are not a cause for concern.

“The facts are the facts, 10 home runs are 10 home runs, but usually there are times when he is challenging and the hitter won,” La Russa said. “The bigger the challenge, the more focused he is. Once in a while, maybe [he tries] to do too much, but he’s proven in clutch time he rises to the occasion.”

Vaughn handling full season

Andrew Vaughn was not in Saturday’s lineup, but his next appearance in a game will be his 100th of the season. That’s nearly twice as many as he played in 2019 in the minor leagues.

At the University of California, Vaughn played a total of 160 games across three seasons, so his workload this year is already far beyond anything he has done in college or the minors.

“He shows no signs of wearing down,” La Russa said. “His conditioning and his mind are so strong that he looks to me like opening day.”

La Russa said the decision to sit Vaughn Saturday was based on the fact that the Yankees had Jameson Taillon, a right-hander, on the mound Saturday. Vaughn has a 1.041 OPS against left-handed pitchers and a .679 against right-handers.

Sox homer leaders

Luis Robert’s first at-bat at Guaranteed Rate Field since his hip injury on May 2 came in the second inning Saturday, and he hit a 438 foot, game-tying blast to center field. That home run gave the White Sox 66 home runs since June 30, which leads baseball.

That’s a reversal from where they were the first three months of the season. From opening day to June 29, they had 72 home runs as a team, good for 28th in the league.

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