White Sox manager Tony La Russa said costly decision to intentionally walk Trea Turner on 1-2 count ‘wasn’t a tough call’

White Sox manager Tony La Russa said that while Max Muncy did break open the game with a three-run homer in the sixth inning after he ordered an intentional walk to Trea Turner with a 1-2 count in Chicago’s 11-9 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, he defended the thinking behind the call.

Down 6-5 after Freddie Freeman hit an RBI single in the sixth off left-hander Bennett Sousa, who then bounced an 0-2 slider for a wild pitch that allowed Freeman to take second, La Russa ordered the intentional walk to the right-handed-hitting Turner, who had singled in a run in the fifth.

“He’s got two strikes, Tony!” a fan yelled.

Muncy, whose two-run double off Dylan Cease put the Dodgers ahead 5-4 in the fifth, worked the count to 2-2 and sliced a slider to the opposite field and into the left-field seats, his fourth home run this season.

La Russa said after the game that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

“Is there some question about whether that was good move or not?’’ La Russa, a 77-year-old Hall of Famer, said. “Do you know what [Turner] hits against left-handed pitching with 0-1 or two strikes? Do you know what Muncy hits with two strikes against a left-handed pitcher? Is that really a question? We had an open base and Muncy happened to be the guy behind him and that’s a better matchup.

“Somebody disagrees, that’s the beauty of this game, they’re welcome to it. But that wasn’t a tough call.”