CHICAGO — In the second inning of another ugly White Sox loss Saturday night, manager Pedro Grifol benched Luis Robert Jr. — the starting center fielder who signed a $50 million contract extension in 2020 before he made his major-league debut, and his leadoff man for the night — after he (seemingly) inexplicably jogged out what should have been an infield single in his first, and only, at-bat.
“I just spoke to him and said we’ve got to run hard down the line,” Grifol said after the game. “Luis is a really hard worker, plays hard. He might have had a mental lapse. And our expectations are we got to run hard down the line. This is not a common occurrence with Luis. As a matter of fact, I’ve talked to him about slowing down a little bit in practices and save some of it because he’s a hard worker. But our expectations are you run hard down the line and he might have had a mental lapse on…
