Cubs 10, White Sox 7: Eight unanswered runs

If that was Lance Lynn’s last game in a White Sox uniform, it wasn’t much of one. The same could be said for Joe Kelly and Keynan Middleton.

Hell, you can even rope in Marcus Stroman if you want to rope in showcases for the other team, and even Cody Bellinger committed a costly brain fart.

The difference is that the North Side bullpen trumped their South Side counterpart, allowing just one hit over the final 5⅔ innings, whereas Kelly poured gasoline on Lynn’s fire, and Middleton gave up a pair of solo shots to give the Cubs a cushion they didn’t need.

The White Sox should’ve been able to kick this game out of reach after scoring four in the bottom of the fourth to extend a lead to 7-2 while chasing Stroman from the game. Then Lynn and Kelly combined to give up six runs in the top of the fifth, and five scored after two outs.

Lynn started the inning with a single, HBP and single for a run. Bellinger flied out and Seiya Suzuki walked to load the bases, but Lynn struck out Dansby Swanson to be within one pitch of escaping.

Instead, Christopher Morel singled home two runs — the second one scoring when Andrew Benintendi boxed the ball — to chase Lynn from the game. In came Kelly, who struck out Miles Mastrobuoni, but on a curveball that bounced and bit Seby Zavala on the forearm, and another run crossed the plate on the inning-extending wild pitch strike three.

Kelly then lost everything. He got ahead 1-2 on Yan Gomes, then plunked him on the eighth pitch to reload the bases. He got ahead 0-2 on Mike Tauchman, then walked him on seven pitches. Then he fell behind Nico Hoerner 2-0 before walking him on five.

The Cubs had the lead, and two solo shots off Middleton later, they had the final score.

The White Sox immediately overshadowed it by trading Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Angels, so here are bullet points for the rest of the recap:

*The White Sox outfield committed two errors on similar plays, as Luis Robert Jr. also didn’t look the ball into his glove and turned a Mastrobuoni singled into a double.

*Jake Burger hit his 22nd homer of the year, a screamer of a solo shot off Stroman.

*Eloy Jiménez once again savored a matchup against his former team, going 2-for-5 with four RBIs, including a big two-run double that ended Stroman’s night.

*Aaron Bummer and Kendall Graveman did better with their auditions, pitching 2⅓ scoreless innings between them.

Record: 41-62 | Box score | Statcast

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