HOUSTON -- Remember former White Sox left-handed reliever Bennett Sousa? If the name only registers as vaguely familiar, his most famous moment inspires stronger reactions.
"When I came here, people knew about it," Sousa said, looking around the Astros home clubhouse. "Everywhere I go honestly, people knew about it. It's like one of those weird things in baseball. It's a viral moment, I guess."
Three years and three days ago, Sousa was a rookie reliever in a tough spot against the Dodgers, in a game that was getting away from the Sox, in a moment that some would mark as an indicator that the 2022 season was getting away from them, too. After pitching a nice, uneventful 1-2-3 seventh inning the night before, Sousa had already given up two hits to lefty batters, including an RBI single to Freddie Freeman. He was a pitch away from getting out of it with no further damage, until an 0-2 delivery to Trea Turner got away from Yasmani Grandal, and first base opened as Freeman dashed to second.
Tony La Russa put up four fingers in the White Sox dugout, and the rest is an odd episode in franchise history.
"It works out if I get Max Muncy out," Sousa said. "But he hits a three-run home run, so everyone knows about it. If I get him out, no one even knows about it."
Given how much oxygen La Russa's bespoke in-game machinations tended to draw, the Hall of Fame manager probably would have gotten a postgame question about it regardless. But more than most, players tend to respect the workflow that the manager makes the calls and it's on them to execute, as it's the order they live by.
For Sousa, La Russa is his first manager, the man who told him he was a big leaguer for the first time. A month prior to the intentional walk heard 'round the world, he had tapped Sousa to record his first -- and until last week, his only -- major league save of his career in Fenway Park, against a Red Sox team he had grown up idolizing.
"Not too many guys can say they've played for Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker," Sousa said. "I've done both. It was pretty awesome. Tony was great. I loved my time with him."
Five days after the intentional walk, Sousa was optioned to Triple-A, and would never return to the White Sox active roster. A former 10th-round pick in 2018 and a $10,000 senior signing, Sousa had performed and missed bats at every level of the minors, but it was a chaotic series of events that put him on the 2022 Opening Day roster. Late in a spring training truncated by the MLB lockout, the White Sox were hammering out a deal to ship out Craig Kimbrel the same night Garrett Crochet's elbow blew out, suddenly clearing a path for Sousa to contribute as a second lefty in the bullpen. He held his own for a while, but Muncy's homer ensured his White Sox ERA would start with an 8.
"I was trying to do too much," Sousa said. "It was kind of a crazy time in that White Sox era, those two seasons, you know? And also as a rookie, things were moving fast at the time. Being three years later, the game has slowed down and I'm having fun."
Sousa was designated for assignment by the Sox in spring of 2023 to clear a 40-man roster space, which sent him through a long transient period across different organizations that all clocked him as an intriguing lefty, but couldn't provide him with a steady role.
He was claimed off waivers by the Reds and spent the following spring in their camp, but was DFA'd and traded to the Brewers barely over a month later, where they had him "on the option train" before putting him on waivers again in late August. He spent "a couple of days" in the Tigers organization before being DFA'd again and claimed by the Astros in September 2023. By then, shoulder problems had become a recurring issue and he lost the entire 2024 season to a surgery that now looks like a turning point. He's found himself throwing from a higher arm slot that is keeping him healthy thus far, but also producing more carry on his fastball, and more drop and sweep on his slider.
"I've always been kind of a high arm slot, but kind of re-found that being injured all last year and rehabbing," Sousa said. "Just getting cleaned up with my shoulder after the surgery allowed me to get back on top."
At age 30, Sousa is looking like the reliever that his nasty sliders portended on the backfields three years earlier. He's struck out 29 and walked just six hitters in 22 innings for the Astros this year, and is sitting at a 2.05 ERA after tossing two hitless, scoreless frames against his old club on Tuesday night. But returning to the mound at Rate Field last month landed as the more emotional experience.
"Everyone wants to pitch well against the teams that got rid of you, right?" Sousa said. "When I went to Chicago it was a little bit more let's get these guys. Now it's like ... I've got so many buddies over there on that team."
Despite not actually overlapping with their times at University of Virginia, alums of that baseball program are tight-knit enough that Sousa knows Mike Vasil and Kyle Teel well ("Teel is gonna be a heckuva player"). He regards Sox pitching coordinator Matt Zaleski as a big influence on his career, worked with assistant athletic trainer Hyeon Kim in the minors and said general manager Chris Getz "was awesome to me."
"I went through the minor leagues with all those guys," Sousa said. "They were great people who helped me out in my career. I'm just appreciative of the opportunity they gave me in the draft at that time, and my career took off from there."
