Cubs 7, White Sox 3: North Siders Provided the Fireworks
Tim Anderson fielded Seiya Suzuki’s grounder to start the second inning and made a throw off his back foot. Andrew Vaughn couldn’t glove it as it bounced towards first base, allowing Suzuki to reach on Anderson’s throwing error. Nine pitches later, Dansby Swanson and Christopher Morel hit back-to-back home runs. That offensive spark got the Chicago Cubs off and running, and they never looked back, winning 7-3.
Swanson had a big night early. After his two-run homer in the second inning, Swansby hit his second homer of the night in the fourth inning, a solo shot, and the Cubs were up 4-0. It would be a 5-0 game in the fifth inning before the White Sox even got a hit.
Typically, Kyle Hendriks against the White Sox is a bad matchup for The Professor. In 11 career starts against the White Sox, Hendriks entered the night 1-6 with a 4.83 ERA with his lone win back in 2018. With this being 2023, the White Sox hitters had a tough time making quality contact against Hendriks.
That was until Eloy Jimenez doubled down the left-field line in the fifth inning. But instead of starting a rally, all Yoan Moncada and Vaughn could muster were weak ground balls to the right side of the infield. It was enough to score Jimenez, but the White Sox were down by four runs halfway through the game.
It became a 7-1 game in the seventh inning when Nico Hoerner hit a solo home run, and Swanson added another RBI to his tally with a run-scoring single. It had the makings of becoming a laugher for a Crosstown rivalry game.
Then the White Sox offense showed life. Anderson singled to lead things off, and Luis Robert Jr. hit a ground-rule down to left field. With runners in scoring position, Jimenez had a good plate appearance, laying off low sinkers from Hendriks and drawing the White Sox’s first walk of the night. Now the bases were loaded for Moncada, making his return from the Injured List.
On a low sinker, Moncada golfed a fly ball to right field that kept carrying. Suzuki stayed with the play and made a terrific catch reaching over the wall to rob Moncada of a grand slam. Instead of an emphatic spark, Moncada had to settle for a sacrifice fly.
Next, Vaughn pulled out his sand wedge and chipped an infield single perfectly placed between the pitcher’s mound and first base. Robert scored, and the White Sox were down by four runs again.
After a quiet eighth inning, the White Sox offense needed a big rally in the ninth. Robert Jr. did an excellent job of laying off Michael Fulmer’s low sweepers and high fastballs to draw the walk. Jimenez would follow with a single to center field off a 0-2 sweeper that caught the middle of the strike zone.
Cubs manager David Ross swapped out Fulmer for Adbert Alzolay. Using his exceptional slider, Alzolay struck out Moncada, froze Vaughn and Grandal on 96-mph sinkers to strike out the side.
The Cubs provided all of the fireworks for a rivalry game on the south side.
Game Notes:
- Not only did the Chicago Cubs have four home runs as a team, but they also stole five bases.
- Jake Burger made his first career start at second base. He’s not really a second baseman, but was involved in nice 6-4-3 double play where Burger made a nice turn.
- Michael Kopech struggled as he threw 102 pitches finishing with a final line: 5 IP 9 H 5 R 4 ER 1 BB 5 K 3 HR allowed
- Tonight’s attendance was the White Sox first sellout of 2023.
Record: 41-61 | Box Score | StatCast
Author
We made it! 20 games below .500–I knew this team could do it!
but seriously when do we trade everyone
Dumping your impending free agents to the highest bidder seems like it should be relatively straightforward as far as transactions go, but I still fear Rick Hahn’s inability to read the market will result in far less activity than any of us want to see. Middleton for a PTBNL and Rick will consider it a job well done.
This is where I am sitting at this point… Everyone has known this team should be looking to sell since like May. The fear at this point is that Hahn is “waiting for the market to come to him” and that, instead, it will pass him by.
If the reports of even a couple weeks ago about the price for Lance Lynn being sky high is an indicator of how this trade deadline will go, we should expect a “McQuire for Diekman”-esque swap and nothing more…
Same fear. He over valued most these players to begin with, and now the same guy is at the helm for the tear down…again. The discount playoff contenders like Cincy, MIL, TB, and BAL are not going to overpay for anyone, so Hahn is overmatched as always with no pulse on the market. Unfortunately there is no national humiliation of this FO since no one outside of Chicago either cares or realizes the White Sox are not a cartoon strip.
I’m thinking big- they can make 100 losses! That would require them to go 21-39 the rest of the way. I know they can do it!
Hahn will again be underwhelming at the deadline, saying he couldn’t get proper value for his guys. At the least, Lynn, Giolito, Grandal and Kelly must go. In addition, he should trade Rey, Middleton, TA and Graveman. And Andrus and Sheets can go if anyone at all wants either of them. That’s 10 guys. I’m guessing he’ll trade less than 4.
I still think Bummer will go, I may be wrong but I’m planting my flag.
Yes, I forgot about him. He should go to. So that makes 11. I’m still going with under 4 for Rick’s trades.
Under 4 sounds about right for Hahns bandwidth capacity but I might go as high as 5 if he could trade Lynn before dinner tonight.
Parkins and Speigel on the Score were interviewing Morosi, and put the over/under at 5.5 players moved at the deadline… I think the closer that the deadline gets, the less guys will get moved.
We’ve seen the Braves add 2 different relievers from 2 different teams, and claim another off waivers. We’ve seen the Dodgers bring back Kike Hernandez. Maybe the market is already passing Hahn by.
Nightengale saying this morning that Lynn has already been approached to waive his limited no trade to go to the Rays. So maybe there’s something there? But, if the Rays try to trade you something, you always have to ask, “why are the Rays giving up on this guy already?!”
It sounds like Lynn might be gone before his scheduled start tonight. So that’s a start. But yes, Hahn will get passed by on his relievers. We know how highly he values relievers, so Rey, Middleton, Kelly, Bummer, Graveman will probably not be moved due to Hahn’s incompetence.
Grim Reaper visited the wrong Chicago sports owner tonight.
Got at least two more to go here, hopefully soon for the city’s sake.
I’ll be the contrarian here. I find wishing people dead because they are unsuccessful sports team owners in poor taste even when done in jest. (I’m assuming no one actually wishes death upon an old man just so they can root for a team that wins more games.)
It’s just gallows humor.
While I’d normally be with you, this situation isn’t normal. The owner holding the team hostage for a better tax incentive upon his death, brings it upon himself.
30 games under .500, here we come.
Perfectly doable
lol they are basically on that exact pace, now imagine this team without a bunch of guys moved at the deadline too… is 66-96 doable, you betcha!!!!!
100 losses on the nose would be perfect
I find the statcast xBA interesting. Moncada’s sac fly had an xBA of 0.140 but would have been out of 6/30 mlb parks (Sox park is not one of the 6). Hoerner’s home run had an even lower xBA of 0.130 but would have been out of 11/30 mlb parks (Sox park is one of the 11) which seems like it should mean the xBA should be at least 0.367 (11/30). Dansby Swanson’s first home run had an xBA of 0.370 and would have been out of every mlb park.
I think this may be because xBA is based on EV and LA but doesn’t account for spray angle while the fraction of parks a fly ball would be a home run in does account for spray angle and the ball’s height at the distance of the wall at that spray angle.
Can the more analytically minded confirm or correct my guess about what is going on?
Also Statcast doesn’t account for environmental factors such as wind, humidity, etc. Might be a factor.
how’d we ever win 41
Lolly gaggers!!
It’s a miracle.
I think right now we are on a 71 win pace, but I think winning less than 70 games is a real possibility.
How many times in the last 15 years has a team that was supposed to contend finished with less than 70 wins? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I’m not sure Jerry even processes how bad Hahn is failing at this job.
they have a 402 win percentage, multiply that out by 162… they are on 65 win pace
Excuse me while I vomit.
The 59-win 2016 Twins are the only ones that I can come up with. This team may be on a 65 win pace, but it certainly feels like a 59-win team.
In a historically bad division to boot.
I just dont know how this franchise can expect fans to “tune in” anymore. There is still a lot of games left and this team is a miserable watch, if not slightly entertaining for the mental lapses and silly errors that have become predictable. Its a showcase of what not to do when you are a professional sport organization.
As soon as Swanson homered in the second inning, I knew the home team was dead.
Nightengale saying sox and rays far down the road on a lynn trade…. something to monitor
So does he still make his start tonight? Same question for Giolito tomorrow. Now would be an opportune time to recall Clevinger, assuming he could pitch tonight.
Also of interest, is it a Lynn only trade or a package. What about the comp return? Would this be a Miguel Gonzalez type return (Ti’Quan Forbes) or a Melky type (Andre Davis, AJ Puckett)?. Ugh.
Maybe Lynn packaged with a Gavin Sheets could return something palatable.
Ive heard cole wilcox name in twitter posts… seems interesting coming off an injury and not on tampa’s 40 man so they may be more willing to give him up and not have to deal with him in the rule 5 next off season
I was looking at Logan Driscoll, he play C, RF, and 1B so he covers all of Hahn’s bases. Obviously the Sox would put him at 2B.
Wilcox, an injured P with an era about the same as Lynn? That’s definitely more Hahns’ style.
Wilcox was pretty highly thought of by the padres and then the rays via the snell trade… those two teams know a lot about building through the farm so I wouldnt get too hung up on the ERA of a guy coming back from an injury.
Its lance lynn… they arent gonna get back anything too exciting so taking on a project with upside is probably the best they are going to do. Greg Jones and Tristian Peters could be of some use too…
Just totally guessing here with these names.
So what you are saying is it’s a Melky type return. (AJ Puckett was also highly thought of and a 2nd rounder by KC).
I’m not excited which is why I asked if a package would be a better return.