Edgar Quero walks off Cubs; Sox complete 7-2 homestand

Rate Field on May 13. (Photo by Jason Bauman)

Struggling White Sox catcher Edgar Quero picked the ideal time for his first home run of the season.

Quero, who entered Sunday's game against the crosstown Cubs batting .151 with a .163 slugging percentage, picked on the first pitch he saw from Ryan Rolison in the bottom of the 10th inning and smacked it over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer to give the Sox a 9-8 victory over the hated and despised North Siders.

The Sox took two out of three over the weekend at Rate Field, picking up their first series victory over the Cubs since 2022. 

It was hard-earned.

Sox starter Erick Fedde didn't have good stuff. He needed 84 pitches to get through the first three innings, and after allowing the first two Cubs batters to reach base in the top of the fourth, he was mercifully removed from the game.

Fedde's final line: three innings pitched, six hits, four runs (all earned), four walks, two strikeouts. Fortunately, the Sox only trailed 4-1 headed to the bottom of the fourth. With the traffic the Cubs had on the bases, it easily could have been 7-1.

Instead, the Sox remained within striking distance. They scored one in the fourth, and then tied the game at 4-4 in the fifth on a two-out, two-run double by Miguel Vargas.

Meanwhile, the Sox bullpen held the line. Sean Newcomb tossed two scoreless innings. Grant Taylor tossed two scoreless innings. Bryan Hudson pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out jam in the eighth to keep it at 4-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, Tristan Peters took his shot at being the unlikely hero. With two outs, he connected for his first MLB homer off Cubs reliever Phil Maton. It was a 3-run shot that gave the Sox a 7-4 lead going to the top of the ninth.

That should have been the decisive blow, but alas, Seranthony Dominguez has been an adventure as Sox closer. And he had another misadventure Sunday.

Alex Bregman walked to lead off the top of the ninth. After Ian Happ struck out, Seiya Suzuki reached on a two-base throwing error by Vargas that placed runners on second and third.

When a multi-run lead is blown, usually walks and errors are part of it. Dominguez fell behind in the count, 3-1, to Michael Conforto, and the Cubs outfielder blasted the next pitch out to center for a 3-run homer to tie the game at 7-7.

The Sox left two runners on base in the bottom of the inning, sending the game to extras. The Cubs got their ghost runner across against reliever Tyler Davis (2-1), with Bregman picking up the RBI on a slowly hit grounder to short.

But Davis did a good job of preventing further damage and gave the Sox a chance in the bottom of the inning.

After Andrew Benintendi's sacrifice bunt moved ghost runner Chase Meidroth over to third, the struggling Quero delivered perhaps the biggest hit of his career thus far, sending those dressed in black in the crowd into a frenzy.

The Sox are 24-22, one game back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. For the homestand, the South Siders went 7-2, winning two of three from the Seattle Mariners and sweeping the Kansas City Royals prior to the Cubs series.

I made it to Rate Field for the middle game of the Kansas City series, after a co-worker who is a Royals fan invited me to the game. I took the above photo in the bottom of the eighth inning that night, with Munetaka Murakami at the plate.

As you can see, the fans haven't really come back from these past three miserable seasons. Sure, all these games against the Cubs were sellouts, but all the losing and lousy Jerry Reinsdorf ownership has hit everybody hard.

But maybe more homestands like this will slowly rejuvenate interest in this team. There's a lot of baseball left to be played, and it's a long road back to relevance. But punking the Cubs is one way for the Sox to get a little more mention on the sports talk shows and in the national press. 

Kyle Tucker will join the Los Angeles Dodgers -- of course!

Cue the tweets about how the Los Angeles Dodgers are ruining baseball.

In free agent news that broke late Thursday night, Kyle Tucker is joining the two-time defending champs on a four-year, $240 million contract. The deal reportedly contains opt-outs after the second and third seasons.

Tucker is, of course, a good player. He's probably the top free agent on the market this season -- a 143 OPS+ and a 4.6 WAR with the Cubs in 2025. He batted .266/.377/.464 with 22 homers, 25 doubles and 73 RBIs in 136 games. A lot of that damage came in the first half of the season, as Tucker struggled with injuries the second half of the year.

But is that really worth a $60 million AAV? Ehh, probably not, but it's the Dodgers. They have so much money that they don't know what to do with it. Nobody seems able to outbid them, and even if a signing backfires, they have so much depth that it's almost irrelevant.

They're going to be a hard team to beat.

I'd probably be more pissed off about this if my team were actually competing. Alas, as a White Sox fan, I know there's no chance in hell of a World Series on the South Side of Chicago in 2026. So, what do I really care if the Dodgers win again? 

Sometimes sports are better when there are villains, and I imagine this signing will further galvanize the rest of baseball in hating Los Angeles.

Cubs to sign Alex Bregman to five-year, $175 million deal

Last week on this blog, we said the Cubs' acquisition of starting pitcher Edward Cabrera wouldn't mean much if they didn't go all in to sign one of the big four remaining free agent batters.

I suggested the North Siders pursue Bo Bichette. While they did not do that, the Cubs are signing one of the four players on that list, as third baseman Alex Bregman has reportedly agreed to a five-year deal worth $175 million. 

A three-time All-Star and two-time World Series winner, Bregman was on the free agent market a year ago at this time, but he wasn't finding any offers to his liking. He was coming off a down season in 2024 -- a career-worst .315 OBP.

So, he took a two-year contract with the Boston Red Sox, with a one-year opt-out. In the hitter-friendly environment at Fenway Park, Bregman bounced back in 2025. He batted .273/.360/.462 with 18 homers and 62 RBIs, even though injuries limited him to 114 games. His OPS+ was 128, which ranks as his fourth-best season in his 10-year career. 

Bregman exercised his opt-out, re-entered free agency, and the bet has paid off in this deal with the Cubs. 

A word about opt-outs, because I've seen some Cubs fans on X suggesting the team reunite with outfielder Kyle Tucker by offering him a high-AAV deal with an opt-out.

If a player is going to take a contract with an opt-out clause, it behooves that player to sign with a team that plays its home games in a hitters' ballpark, which is what Bregman did with Boston last season. 

Perhaps once upon a time Wrigley Field was such a place. But since they put up those scoreboards behind the bleachers there, the wind currents have shifted, and Wrigley is a more pitcher-friendly place.

It's hard to say, "I'll sign with the Cubs, put up big numbers, then opt out after one year and get bigger money," because there are easier places to put up big numbers than in Chicago.

To entice a big free agent bat, the Cubs were going to need to go long term. That's what they've done with Bregman, and it's a big swing they needed to take.

This is the type of move that big market teams should be doing. 

Cubs acquire Edward Cabrera, send top prospect to Marlins

The Cubs moved to strengthen their starting rotation on Wednesday, acquiring 27-year-old right-hander Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins.

The acquisition cost was not insignificant. The North Siders sent outfielder Owen Caissie, their top overall prospect, to Miami, along with infielders Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon.

The Cubs most definitely needed to add starting pitching this offseason, as their rotation was depleted by injury and ineffectiveness in 2025, and that contributed to their NLDS loss to Milwaukee Brewers.

In Cabrera, they are getting a pitcher coming off his best season. He started 26 games with Miami last year, going 8-7 with a 3.53 ERA. He struck out 150 batters (against 48 walks) over 137.2 innings pitched. His fastball averages 96.8 mph, and he also has a curve, slider and changeup.

The main concern for Cabrera: injuries. The 26 starts last season were a career high. Until 2025, he had never thrown more than 100 innings in a season. Even in a relatively healthy year, Cabrera experienced posterior elbow discomfort last July, and he also missed time in September with a right elbow sprain.

The bottom line: Cabrera is a talented pitcher, and he's effective when healthy. He joins a Cubs rotation that includes Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon. The Cubs are hoping to get left-hander Justin Steele (elbow surgery) back sometime during the first half of 2026.

Earlier in the offseason, the Cubs were connected to free agent pitchers Dylan Cease (Blue Jays), Michael King (Padres) and Tatsuya Imai (Astros). They obviously did not convert on any of those targets, necessitating this move.

This ends speculation that Caissie will be the Cubs' replacement for Kyle Tucker in the outfielder. Tucker, who played well for the Cubs in the first half of 2025 before being a combination of injured and bad in the second half, remains a free agent.

The Cubs obviously are in win-now mode, and this Cabrera deal is a win-now move. Last year, I was critical of the Cubs because I didn't think they were aggressive enough in addressing their starting pitching at the trade deadline. They acquired Tucker as a one-year rental last offseason, and they should have pushed their chips to the center of the table to win in 2025.

Instead, they tinkered around the edges of their roster at the deadline, adding guys like Michael Soroka and Willi Castro. They ended up getting their lunch money taken -- again -- by the small-market Brewers, who have been the best team in the NL Central in recent years despite their limited resources. 

Going after Cabrera is not without risk because of the injury history, but I think it's a worthwhile risk -- as long as the Cubs do not stop there.

If they aren't going to bring back Tucker, that's fine, but then they need to sign one of the other major free agents hitters still available -- Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette or Cody Bellinger.

If I'm the Cubs, and I most certainly am not, I'm going after Bichette. 

Miguel Vargas playing well amid White Sox drudgery

A little more than two weeks ago, we asked the question, "Can Miguel Vargas save his career with the White Sox?"

So far, so good.

The Sox predictably got drubbed all three games during the weekend crosstown series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, but the main takeaway for me was a continuing stretch of good baseball from Vargas.

For the series, he went 6 for 10 with three homers, a double and four RBIs. Vargas now leads the Sox in home runs with six and RBIs with 21.

If you expand the sample size out over the past 20 games, Vargas is batting .351/.422/.622 with five home runs, five doubles, 12 runs scored, 13 RBIs and 1.044 OPS.

That's still only 20 games, and we still need to see how it looks over a long season, but this has been an encouraging stretch for the 25-year-old third baseman.

We'll let the North Siders have their fun at our expense. We all understand the Sox are the worst team in the American League. We all understand the Sox are heavy underdogs in nearly every series they enter, especially on the road. We all understand the Sox are going to lose a lot of games in 2025.

But from the Sox perspective, this season is not about beating the Cubs. It's about looking for answers and finding some solutions for the multitude of long-term holes that exist on the roster. 

For Vargas to perform well in the hostile environment of Wrigley Field, that's notable. It would be nice if he turns out to be the third baseman of the present and the future.

White Sox vs. Cubs: Pitching matchups

For those who still think the crosstown series is a big deal (I don't), here are the projected pitching matchups for this weekend's three-game set between the White Sox and the Cubs at Wrigley Field. 

Since we are Sox fans, Sox pitchers will be listed first:

Friday

Shane Smith (1-2, 2.08 ERA) vs. Cade Horton (1-0, 6.75 ERA)

Saturday

Sean Burke (2-4, 4.15 ERA) vs. Matthew Boyd (3-2, 2.78 ERA)

Sunday

Jonathan Cannon (2-4, 3.60 ERA) vs. Colin Rea (3-0, 2.48 ERA)

All three games start at 1:20. This series has lost so much luster that the TV networks don't want it anymore.

White Sox announce 2024 coaching staff; Pedro Grifol sadly still manager

There was a brief moment on Monday where White Sox fans could dream of having a competent field manager.

The New York Mets hired Carlos Mendoza to be their manager. The Cleveland Guardians hired Stephen Vogt. And Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that Craig Counsell would manage *some team* in 2024, and while it would not be the Mets or Guardians, it would be a team with an existing manager.

Oh.

For about 15 minutes, Twitter lit up with Sox fans hoping that Pedro Grifol would be launched, and that Counsell would come to the South Side.

During that time, I tweeted the following:

Replacing Grifol with Counsell would be the sort of move that would make me reconsider buying a ticket plan. But I don’t see it happening. My first thought here was, “Bye bye, Grampa Rossy.” Either the Cubs or Yankees will do this.

Sure enough, moments later we learned the Cubs had launched David Ross and made Counsell the highest-paid manager in baseball -- five years, $40 million. 

I'm not sure any manager is worth that kind of money, but it's still a good move and a clear upgrade for the Cubs. After three straight years of either being out of the race or a faux contender at best, I expect the contention window to reopen on the North Side in 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Sox will continue their perpetual rebuilding with the following coaching staff:

• Manager: Grifol
• Bench: Charlie Montoyo
  
• Pitching: Ethan Katz
  
• Assistant pitching: Matt Wise
• Hitting: Marcus Thames
• Assistant hitting: Mike Tosar
• First base coach: Jason Bourgeois
• Third base coach: Eddie Rodríguez
• Catching: Drew Butera
• Major League coach: Grady Sizemore

If you've got any idea what a "Major League coach" does, please tell me. The most interesting name on the list, to me, is Thames, who becomes the third hitting coach the Sox have had in three seasons.

Fans have pointed out that Thames was the hitting coach for a failed Los Angeles Angels team in 2023, and while that's true, he had some success as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees from 2017 to 2021.

Assuming Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn are still on the roster for 2024, can Thames get them to start hitting the ball in the air again? Will we ever see an uptick in power and plate discipline with the Sox? Those are some of my key questions.

White Sox rebuild arc vs. Cubs rebuild arc: A comparison

The current era of White Sox baseball started Dec. 6, 2016. That was the day general manager Rick Hahn traded All-Star pitcher Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox for four prospects -- Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz.

As we all know, Moncada is now the starting third baseman (when healthy) on the South Side, and Kopech is a member of the starting rotation (when healthy) -- although neither has fully lived up to the hype that surrounded them as prospects. Those other two guys in the deal flamed out, but that's not the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is that the Sox are now in Year 7 of this grand project, and it hasn't yielded the promised results. From day one, I was skeptical of Hahn's master plan. The fact is, my view was the minority one. Most Sox fans bought in.

Why did they buy in? Well, let's remember what the baseball climate was like in Chicago in winter 2016. The crosstown Cubs had just won the World Series for the first time in 108 years, the culmination of a five-year rebuild executed by then-team president Theo Epstein.

Sox fans looked at that and thought, "Yes, this is the way forward. It worked for them. It can work for us, too. Let's do it!"

But there was one key difference: The Cubs were put in the ditch by their former GM, Jim Hendry. There was an ownership change on the North Side, and a new regime was brought in -- led by Epstein -- to take a fresh look at some old problems. Hendry and the old guard were fired.

On the South Side, the Sox have had the same owner since 1981. They've had the same GM since 2013. Those people were responsible for the franchise bottoming out from 2013-16. You can't change the owner, but at minimum, Hahn should have been replaced. Instead, he was given a second chance to rebuild the club, and frankly, he's done little with it.

Let's compare the arcs of the respective rebuilds on both sides of town. For purposes of this exercise, we'll look at the Cubs from 2012-18, and we'll look at the Sox from 2017 to present day.

So, for the Cubs, "Year 1" is 2012. Year 1 is 2017 for the Sox. Year 2 is 2013 for the Cubs and 2018 for the Sox, so on and so forth:

Year 1

Cubs: 61-101, finished fifth in NL Central

White Sox: 67-95, finished fourth in AL Central

Year 2

Cubs: 66-96, finished fifth in NL Central

White Sox: 62-100, finished fourth in AL Central

Year 3

Cubs: 73-89, finished fifth in NL Central

White Sox: 72-89, finished third in AL Central

Year 4

Cubs: 97-65, NL wild card, won NLDS, lost in NLCS

White Sox: 35-25, AL wild card, lost in first round of playoffs (pandemic-shortened season)

Year 5

Cubs: 103-58, NL Central champions, won NLDS, won NLCS, World Series champions 

White Sox: 93-69, AL Central champions, lost in ALDS

Year 6

Cubs: 92-70, NL Central champions, won NLDS, lost in NLCS

Sox: 81-81, finished second in AL Central

Year 7

Cubs: 95-68, NL wild card, lost in NL wild card game

Sox: 6-10 through first 16 games.

What do we notice here? There are two things in common. Both teams put their fans through three years of intentional losing, but when the Cubs came out of it in the fourth year, they had an elite team. The Sox were good, but clearly not among the elite teams in the AL. 

Both of these rebuilding projects peaked in the fifth year. The Cubs' rebuild resulted in that World Series. The Sox rebuild peaked with a division title and a quick ouster from the playoffs.

After the Cubs won, they were still contenders for two more years. Despite a decline in play, they still won a playoff series in Year 6, while the Sox finished 11 games out in their division. The Cubs were a playoff team in Year 7, too. There's 146 games to go in Year 7 for the Sox, but it's not looking good so far.

This is not to say the Cubs were the model rebuild. Look to the Houston Astros for that. They've made the ALCS in each of the past six seasons. They have made the World Series four times, and they've won it twice -- 2017 and 2022.

Basically, I'm seeing three levels of rebuilds here. At the top of the pyramid, you have the Astros. They were trash for four years, from 2011-14. But once they started climbing, they got to the top in 2017 and have stayed there ever since.

The Cubs are in the middle tier. They got to the top in 2016, but they couldn't stay there. The championship core was disassembled in 2020-21, and they've started anew with a different group of players.

At the bottom tier, we find the Sox, who put their fans through three seasons of intentional losing -- all for a grand total of two contention seasons.

You read that right: The intentional losing on the South Side of Chicago lasted longer than the contention window. It shouldn't be a surprise that fans are so pissed off. They were promised parades. They were promised contention for "multiple championships." Instead, they got a 2-5 record across two playoff appearances.

Whoop dee doo. Soon it will be time to start over. Sox fans can only hope someone other than Hahn will lead the next rebuild.

Eloy Jimenez to injured list; White Sox top Giants

Eloy Jimenez

Remember 15 or 20 years ago when White Sox fans would (rightfully) mock Cubs fans, who started every season by saying, "If Prior and Wood are healthy ..."?

Mark Prior and Kerry Wood were never healthy, and as a result, the Cubs of that era never lived up to the massive amount of hype they received in the local press.

Well, Sox fans, I hate to tell you this, but we are exactly like the Cubs fans of the Prior-Wood time frame right now. All we do is talk about how awesome our team would be if "they could just stay healthy," when the fact of the matter is the Sox are never healthy.

They haven't been healthy in three years, and there's no reason to believe players who are always getting hurt will stop getting hurt. 

Eloy Jimenez is the first core player to be sidelined this year. The 26-year-old designated hitter was injured running the bases during the seventh inning of Monday's loss to the San Francisco Giants. He is expected to be out 2-3 weeks with a hamstring strain, but with Jimenez's injury history, you have to be concerned that this will linger for longer than that.

Injuries limited Jimenez to only 55 games in 2021, and 84 games in 2022. The guy is a prodigious offensive talent, but sad to say, you can't trust him to be ready to play. He's made of glass. Always injured. 

The Sox recalled infielder Jake Burger from Triple-A Charlotte to take Jimenez's place on the roster. I would expect Burger to form the right-handed half of a designated hitter platoon while Jimenez is on the shelf. I would expect Gavin Sheets to be the left-handed half of the platoon.

Speaking of which, Sheets got the start at DH on Wednesday, and he went 2 for 4 with two singles and three RBIs to help the Sox to a 7-3 win over the Giants.

Dylan Cease (1-0) struggled with his command, walking five over five innings pitched. But he also struck out eight and limited the Giants to one hit -- a solo home run by J.D. Davis.

Luis Robert Jr. also had a good game for the Sox, going 3 for 4 with an RBI double, two singles and two runs scored.

The Sox are 3-3. After last season's 81-81 campaign, that's pretty much on brand, right?

Cleveland Guardians address need for designated hitter

Josh Bell

The Cleveland Guardians won the AL Central Division title in 2022, but it wasn't because they received good production from their designated hitters.

In fact, Cleveland DHs combined to bat .217/.276/.309 with only eight home runs and 57 RBIs last season. That's poor, given that whichever player you put in that spot in supposed to be able to hit.

The Guardians moved to address that weakness Tuesday, signing veteran switch-hitter Josh Bell to a two-year contract worth $33 million. The deal includes an opt-out clause after the 2023 season.

Bell split time between the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres last season. He was traded to the Padres midseason as part of the blockbuster Juan Soto deal.

He finished 2022 with .266/.362/.422 slash line, with 29 doubles, 17 home runs and 71 RBIs.

In other words, he performed better than all the Cleveland DHs combined. So, yes, I think this is a smart move by Cleveland.

I saw a lot of my fellow White Sox fans melting down on Twitter after this signing was announced. The reaction is somewhat understandable because, hey, the team that whooped your ass in the division last season just got better.

That said, it isn't like the Sox should have bid on Bell. They don't need anymore 1B/DH types, and while Bell is a good player, he wouldn't fit on the South Side of Chicago from a positional need standpoint.

I commend the Guardians for getting better. Of course, the problem from my perspective isn't what Cleveland is doing. The problem is what the Sox aren't doing. So far, Sox GM Rick Hahn gives the impression that he's sitting around watching the world go by.

Bellinger, Haniger also sign

A couple of free agent outfielders signed with new teams Tuesday. Cody Bellinger is joining the Cubs on a one-year, $17.5 million deal. Mitch Haniger is now with the San Francisco Giants after agreeing on a three-year, $43.5 million contract.

These signings also contributed to Sox fan angst, as we all know the Sox need outfielders. Obviously, these moves mean there are two fewer options available on the board, although I'm not sure either one of these two guys would have fit on the South Side.

Bellinger is still a good defensive outfielder, and he could help any club on that side of the ball. He will certainly make the Cubs a better defensive team. The question mark is his bat. Bellinger won the 2019 National League MVP award as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he's not been the same hitter the past three years after suffering a shoulder injury. He had a .654 OPS and 78 OPS+ plus last season, meaning he was 22% below league average.

Injuries limited Haniger to 57 games last season with the Seattle Mariners, and again, I'm not a huge proponent of signing injured guys -- although Haniger's production was fine when he was healthy. He had a .736 OPS and a 114 OPS+, meaning he was 14% above league average as a corner outfielder. 

Mainly, I look at these deals and come to the conclusion that it's going to take anywhere from $14 million to $20 million per season to sign a competent starting corner outfielder. The Sox need to do that this offseason, but until proven otherwise, I'm bracing to hear that they "weren't comfortable" going to those lengths for any of the available players.

If that's the case, the Sox should get "comfortable" with finishing second or third in the AL Central again next season.

Matt Foster unlikely hero for White Sox

The White Sox completed a sweep of the crosstown Cubs on Wednesday with a 4-3 victory at Wrigley Field. And just like we all expected, the hero of the game was ... Matt Foster? 

Yep, that's right, Matt Foster, the 27-year-old reliever who spent most of the 2021 season bouncing back and forth between Chicago and Triple-A Charlotte. And when Foster was in Chicago last season, he posted a 6.00 ERA and a 1.436 WHIP in 37 appearances.

Coming into spring training, he wasn't really in the plans. However, extended rosters and injuries created opportunity, and Foster made the team out of camp. 

And he's pitched really well in his opportunities in 2022. Coming into Wednesday night, he had allowed only one earned run in 11 innings across 10 appearances.

The assignment Foster received Wednesday night was his toughest yet. He was asked to clean up Aaron Bummer's mess in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Cubs had runners at first and third with one out, and the Sox were clinging to a 4-3 lead. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ, the No. 2 and No. 3 batters in the Cubs' lineup, were due up.

Foster got Suzuki to foul out to first baseman Gavin Sheets on a fastball up and out of the zone. The Cubs' runner on first, Nick Madrigal, was going with the pitch, so perhaps that enticed Suzuki to swing at a pitch that was not a strike. No matter. Either way, it was the second out.

Happ followed, and on a 2-2 pitch, Foster aced him with fastball at the bottom of the zone and struck him out looking. Jam escaped. Lead perserved. Foster's ERA is down to 0.77.

Liam Hendriks worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his seventh save in eight opportunities. That allowed Lucas Giolito (1-1) to pick up his first victory of the season. The right-hander allowed three runs across 5.2 innings, but he struck out 10 Cubs batters.

Jose Abreu (3rd of the season) and Leury Garcia (2nd of the season) homered for the Sox, who overcame an early 3-1 deficit. Sheets had a two-out RBI single in the fourth to tie the game. AJ Pollock had a two-out RBI single in the sixth that put the South Siders ahead for good.

The Sox are now 11-13. The Cubs drop to 9-15.

Stop the presses: White Sox finally win 2 in a row

Tim Anderson

The White Sox have won two games in a row for the first time since April 15-16, as they defeated the crosstown Cubs, 3-1, on a rainy Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

This was not a good night to be a hitter. The game-time temperature was 45 degrees. The wind was blowing in from left field at 23 mph, and most of the game was played in a persistent rain.

You know that whole urban myth about how the Cubs sell out every game? Yeah, no, not tonight. The announced attendance was 34,206, but I'd be willing to bet they didn't have even half that many people there. And who can blame fans from staying away from this one?

Both the Sox and the Cubs are off to poor starts this season, and you might say these March-like conditions during the first week of May are less than ideal for baseball.

Anyway, the Sox got all the runs they needed in the first three innings. They scored two in the second. Jake Burger's infield single scored Jose Abreu, who had reached on an error earlier in the inning. Reese McGuire's safety squeeze bunt scored Adam Engel, who had doubled.

In the third inning, Tim Anderson connected for his fourth home run of the season to put the Sox ahead 3-0. Anderson drive off Keegan Thompson landed in the right-field seats, which is the direction you needed to hit it to get one out of Wrigley on this night. Anything to left field wasn't going anywhere.

Sox pitching did the rest, with six players combining on a six-hitter. Michael Kopech worked four scoreless, but inefficient, innings. He was removed with a man at first base and no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. He had thrown 83 pitches at that point.

Reynaldo Lopez (3-0) relieved and got a double play and a strikeout out of the two batters he faced. For that, he earned his third victory of the season.

Jose Ruiz allowed the lone Cubs run in the sixth. But Aaron Bummer, Matt Foster and Liam Hendriks each worked 1-2-3 innings with one strikeout each, as the Cubs surrendered relatively quietly in the late innings.

For Hendriks, it was his sixth save in seven opportunities. The Sox are 10-13. The Cubs are 9-14. The two teams play one more time in this brief two-game set Wednesday night.

Yasmani Grandal's return and other crosstown series thoughts

Yasmani Grandal

Sometimes it's amazing the difference one player can make. The White Sox lineup just looks better now that Yasmani Grandal has returned from the injured list.

Give the veteran catcher full credit: He came back ready to hit. In a three-game weekend series against the Cubs, Grandal went 6 for 10 with three home runs, a double and 10 RBIs. 

The Sox (76-56) won two of three games from their crosstown rivals. They are 5-1 against the Cubs this season and captured the Crosstown Cup for the first time since 2016.

With Grandal's return, the Sox lineup is now seven batters deep. The only two weak spots are second baseman Cesar Hernandez, and whoever manager Tony La Russa puts in right field. But once Adam Engel comes off the injured list, La Russa will have more options, and he can mitigate that weakness by selecting a player who has a platoon advantage -- and by batting that player at the bottom of the lineup with Hernandez.

In the meantime, a top seven of Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Grandal and Andrew Vaughn looks pretty good. All seven of those batters are above league average at their respective positions. 

For the first time all season, the gang is all here, so now it's up to the players to get the job done.

Cease continues strong second half

In this weekend series, the Sox got two weak starts from Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn. The Sox overcame the poor performance by Keuchel on Friday night, but they were unable to come from behind twice in a row after Lynn dug them a big hole Saturday night.

Enter Dylan Cease on Sunday, and he dominated the Cubs the way a good pitcher should in a 13-1 victory. 

The right-hander went six innings, striking out 11 and walking only two. He allowed one run on four hits. 

Cease now leads the Sox both in wins (11) and strikeouts (188), and he has allowed three earned runs or less in 10 consecutive starts. During that span, he has lowered his ERA from 4.14 to 3.82.

By contrast, Keuchel is 1-4 with a 7.42 ERA in his past eight starts. Unless something drastically changes in September, it's clear that Cease deserves a spot on the playoff roster over Keuchel.

Cubs fans with short memories

I've seen a lot of comments on social media where Cubs fans have complained about Sox fans rubbing their noses in it after a lopsided crosstown series.

Me personally, I don't feel like bragging too much about the Sox punishing the Cubs. After all, the Cubs stink, and the Sox should be dominating them. That said, I don't blame any Sox fan who wants to stick his or her middle finger in the face of a Cubs fan right now.

It wasn't so long ago that the roles were reversed -- the Cubs were contending, and the Sox were losing almost every day and tanking for draft position. During that period, Cubs fans had absolutely no problem chirping at me when their team was pounding the bejesus out of Carson Fulmer and lighting up James Shields.

In 2018, I couldn't wear my Sox hat out in public without some haughty Cubs fan telling me how much the Sox sucked. I could write a whole blog entry about the smart-ass comments I endured around town that summer.

Now the roles are reversed, and some Cubs fans are expecting Sox fans to lay off them because the "Cubs are not even trying to win." True enough, but the 2018 Sox lost 100 games and started the season by dropping 27 out of their first 36, including the aforementioned two shellackings against the Cubs. Do you think the Sox were "trying to win" then? I would argue not.

Cubs fans weren't nice to Sox fans when we were down, so why should Sox fans take it easy on Cubs fans now? It's apparent that some of these Cubbie faithful have forgotten how they acted when their team was winning. Time to move out of the glass house, folks.

Following up: San Diego Padres acquiring Yu Darvish from the Cubs

Yu Darvish

One day after we talked about the San Diego Padres acquiring former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays, we've learned sources say the Padres also are acquiring Yu Darvish from the Cubs.

According to the report, it's a seven-player blockbuster. Darvish, who finished second in the National League Cy Young voting in 2020, is headed to the Padres along with his personal catcher, Victor Caratini. 

In return, the Cubs receive right-handed pitcher Zach Davies and four kids -- outfielders Owen Caissie and Ismael Mena and shortstops Reggie Preciado and Yeison Santana.

Santana is the grizzled veteran among that quartet of prospects. ... He's 20 years old. Caissie and Mena are 18 years old. Preciado is 17. The latter two don't even have a Baseball Reference page yet.

It's hard not to like this deal for the Padres. Darvish has three years and $59 million remaining on his contract, and that's not cheap. But hey, didn't we just watch Darvish pitch like an ace on the North Side of Chicago in 2020? He was 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts. 

The Cubs don't win the NL Central without him, and you could make a good case that he deserved the Cy Young. With that production, he was earning his big contract.

San Diego's projected starting rotation is as follows:

1. Darvish
2. Snell
3. Dinelson Lamet
4. Chris Paddack
5. MacKenzie Gore

Those top three are formidable. The back of the rotation is young with plenty of upside. You can see a scenario now in which the Padres challenge the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West this year, and that's the whole point of the deal.

What's the point of this for the Cubs? Well, they just cleared a bunch of salary. That's it. They just traded their best starter -- perhaps their best trade piece, given that their entire offensive core had a down year in 2020 -- for a league-average right-hander (Davies) and a package of prospects who have never played about Rookie Ball.

None of these guys ranked any higher than No. 10 on the list of San Diego prospects. I suppose one or more of them could be good in 2024 or 2025, but I'm surprised the Cubs couldn't do better for Darvish.

White Sox tumble to No. 7 seed, will play Oakland in first round

Luis Robert

2-6. 

That's all the White Sox needed to do in their last eight games in order to secure an American League Central Division championship.

Of course, they went 1-7. 

The Minnesota Twins are the division champions with a record of 36-24. They have the No. 3 seed in the AL playoffs and will get a favorable matchup against the sixth-seeded Houston Astros (29-31).

That spot could have belonged to the Sox, but they lost to the Cubs, 10-8, on Sunday and finished tied with the Cleveland Indians for second place. Both Chicago and Cleveland are 35-25, one game behind the Twins in the division.

The Indians hold the tiebreaker over the Sox by virtue of their 8-2 record in head-to-head matchups, so they get the 4 seed as the top second-place team and will host the No. 5 seed New York Yankees.

Come to think of it, I don't envy the Indians, because New York is probably better than its 33-27 record indicates.

That leaves the No. 7 seed for the Sox, and they will go on the road to face the No. 2 seed Oakland Athletics. The best-of-three series starts Tuesday night. The A's (36-24) are the only winning team in the AL West, and they coasted to the division title by seven games over Houston.

It was a real ugly finish for the Sox. After getting swept in Cleveland, they lost 10-0 to the Cubs on Friday. The Sox won, 9-5, on Saturday, but they fell behind 10-1 on Sunday before a furious rally in the last two innings to make the game look more competitive than it actually was.

However, what's done is done, and the Sox have to look ahead to Oakland. A few positives:

• Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel were both effective in their last starts of the season, and after taking the weekend against the Cubs off, they should be rested and ready for Games 1 and 2.
• Aaron Bummer and Evan Marshall are healthy, fortifying the Sox's bullpen.
• Rookie Garrett Crochet is unscored upon through the first six innings of his pro career. He tossed two scoreless innings in the win Saturday.
• With Bummer, Marshall, Crochet, Matt Foster, Codi Heuer and Alex Colome all healthy and ready, the Sox have SIX relievers they can use in high-leverage spots. This weekend, the Cubs scored ZERO runs against those six men. That's saying something, given that the Cubs scored 25 runs in the series.
• The Cubs did the Sox a favor by blowing up Reynaldo Lopez on Sunday. The right-hander allowed six runs in 1.1. innings, showing that he is not qualified to make a playoff start for the Sox. It's better that we all discover that now than, say, next Thursday in a winner-take-all Game 3 against the A's.
• Luis Robert went 5 for 11 against the Cubs, showing signs that he's breaking out of an extended slump.
• Yoan Moncada, too. He was 3 for 8 with homer and two walks in his past two games.
• Even after being held hitless Sunday, Jose Abreu is still as good as he's ever been. His bases-loaded double put the Sox ahead to stay Saturday night. He totaled 60 RBIs in a 60-game season. He had 19 homers, a .317 average and a .987 OPS.

That's what we got. I think the Sox have two good starting pitchers and six good relief pitchers. As long as that group of eight does most of the pitching, the Sox should at least have a puncher's chance of upsetting the A's.

Dane Dunning should be No. 3 starter for White Sox in playoffs

Dane Dunning

With a 32-16 record with only 12 games left to play, we know the White Sox will make the American League playoffs in 2020. And we know that, ideally, Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel will start Games 1 and 2 of the postseason.

But what about that No. 3 starter? It has to be either Dylan Cease or Dane Dunning, and I looked at these first two games against the Minnesota Twins this week as a huge test for these two young starters. Here's how they fared:

Cease on Monday: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 Ks, 5 BBs, 99 pitches, 58 strikes

Dunning on Tuesday: 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 7 Ks, 2 BBs, 102 pitches, 62 strikes -- WIN

Dunning improved to 2-0 as the Sox beat the Twins, 6-2, and I think he clearly showed he is the young pitcher most prepared to start a playoff game at this time.

It wasn't that Cease was terrible. He pitched into and out of trouble. He didn't get blown up, and he kept the Sox close in a game the team ultimately won. But his inefficiency created a situation where the bullpen needed to cover 13 outs.

Dunning, in contrast, did not walk people. He used an economy of pitches, and he left the bullpen with only six outs to cover. His slider is getting swings and misses, his fastball command is good, and I'm not seeing any signs that this is a fluke.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Dunning had made four previous starts -- all Sox wins -- and he had a 2.70 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP and 31 strikeouts against only three walks in 20 innings. However, those games were against the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals (twice) and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- all bad teams.

The Twins were Dunning's first big test, and he passed it with flying colors.

The Sox now possess a three-game lead over the Twins in the American League Central entering Wednesday's play. The Cleveland Indians have fallen six games behind. They dropped their seventh straight game Tuesday night, losing 6-5 to the Cubs.

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu named American League Player of the Week

Jose Abreu

What a difference eight or nine days can make in a shortened, 60-game season.

When play concluded on Aug. 15, the White Sox were down in the dumps. They looked terrible against the COVID-19-ravaged St. Louis Cardinals, getting swept in a doubleheader to drop to 10-11 on the season.

At that time, first baseman Jose Abreu was hitting .247/.289/.412 with three home runs and 12 RBIs. He looked like a 33-year-old slugger in decline.

But then Abreu homered on Aug. 16 as part of a back-to-back-to-back-to-back assault on St. Louis pitching in the fifth inning of a 7-2 victory over the Cardinals.

The Detroit Tigers then came to Guaranteed Rate Field for four games. The Sox won them all, with Abreu going 9 for 18 with a homer -- it was a game-winner on Aug. 19 -- and six RBIs in the four-game sweep.

Pretty good, huh?

Well, we hadn't seen anything yet. In a three-game weekend series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Abreu went 7 for 12 with six home runs and nine RBIs. Four of the six home runs came in consecutive plate appearances. Abreu homered in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings of Saturday's 7-4 victory, and again in the second inning of a 2-1 loss -- that defeat snapped a season-high seven-game winning streak for the Sox.

This was historic greatness for Abreu. Homering in four consecutive at-bats ties a Major League record, and six home runs in a three-game series? That's never happened in Sox history, and the Sox have been a team since 1901.

Abreu's season slash now stands at .322/.365/.669 with a league-leading 11 home runs and a league-leading 28 RBIs. His batting average ranks sixth in the AL, so all of a sudden, Abreu is in the hunt for a Triple Crown, and he's an MVP candidate.

After batting .533 this week, Abreu was a no-brainer choice for American League Player of the Week.

And the Sox? They are 17-12, tied with the Cleveland Indians for second place in the AL Central -- only 2.5 games back of first-place Minnesota. According to baseballreference.com, the Sox had a 93.7% chance of making the playoffs as of Monday morning.

That goes to show you how quickly things can change this season.

Yoan Moncada's return to the lineup mostly encouraging for White Sox

Yoan Moncada

There was a headline in a local newspaper Tuesday that described Yoan Moncada as being "in midseason form" in Monday's 5-3 White Sox winner over the Cubs in exhibition play.

Let's not get carried away here. Moncada was only four days removed from returning from COVID-19 protocols, and it was clear he did not have his timing at the plate.

Moncada went 1 for 3, and while he was a little slow getting to fastballs, he had no problem lining a hanging 2-2 curve from Yu Darvish into center field for an RBI single in the bottom of the first.

The hit was part of a five-run rally that also featured a grand slam by Eloy Jimenez.

In Moncada's other two at-bats, he got jammed by a Darvish fastball and lined out to second base. And he also struck out looking against James Norwood, although the strike three pitch appeared to be outside. Earlier in that plate appearance, Moncada swung late on a 2-0 Norwood fastball that was right over the dish.

That's a pitch that "midseason form" Moncada would hammer, but hey, the timing isn't there yet.

Moncada's play at third base was most encouraging. He handled four chances cleanly, and three of them required more than routine effort.

In the first inning, Moncada ranged to his left on a slow chopper, and he made a good throw on the move to get Cubs shortstop Javier Baez.

Albert Almora tested Moncada in the third inning with a smash. Moncada was drawn in to protect against the bunt, but he left his feet, moving quickly to his left, to catch the grounder and throw out Almora.

Most impressively, Moncada took away extra bases from Kris Bryant in the fourth with a backhand pick, a spin and a long throw.

These are plays that no backup third baseman can make, so it's important to keep in mind that even if Moncada doesn't tear the cover off the ball right away, his presence at third base in a plus for the Sox defensively.

That's especially so with a groundball pitcher such as Dallas Keuchel on the mound. The veteran lefty faced the minimum 15 batters and allowed only one hit in five shutout innings against the Cubs on Monday, and you can bet his night was made easier because Moncada was on the field.

White Sox beat Cubs in perhaps most watched exhibition game ever

Adam Engel

So, the White Sox beat the Cubs, 7-3, at Wrigley Field on Sunday in the first exhibition game for both teams since baseball restarted amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The game drew a 3.93 rating on NBC Sports Chicago, the highest rating for a Sox game since September 2012 -- also known as the last time the Sox were in the pennant race.

I guess that goes to show how starved we are for baseball, right? My phone was blowing up during the game with texts from friends. I seem to become more popular when there's a ballgame on the air.

Hey, my friends have questions. Hopefully, I have answers.

And here are my three takeaways from Sunday's game:

1. It was nice to see the Sox slugging the ball around. The Sox had a punch-and-judy kind of offense in comparison to the rest of the league in 2019. They had a team slugging percentage of .414, which was 13th out of 15 teams in the American League. Only the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers -- two clubs who finished with more than 100 losses -- were worse.

But during a six-run fifth inning, the Sox totaled seven hits, five of them for extra-bases. Adam Engel homered off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks. Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu singled, also off Hendricks, and the Cubs changed pitchers.

The first four batters against Jharel Cotton went as such:

• Two-run double for Yasmani Grandal
• RBI double for Edwin Encarnacion
• RBI double for Luis Robert
• RBI triple for Leury Garcia

Granted, the triple by Garcia was a bit of a misplay by Cubs center fielder Ian Happ, but every one of those four hits was stung. Good to see.

2. Carson Fulmer is still very bad. The Sox didn't use any pitchers that we'd expect to be on the Opening Day roster. We saw Drew Anderson, Ross Detwiler, Jimmy Lambert, Fulmer and Codi Heuer.

Unfortunately, Fulmer was the one who looked terrible. The former first-round draft pick entered with a 7-2 lead in the eighth inning and could not get three outs. He walked the bases loaded and gave up a run on an infield single. Heuer relieved and needed only one pitch to clean up the mess.

Lead preserved, win preserved, but it's hard to envision Fulmer ever carving a role in the major leagues at this point. He couldn't consistently throw strikes two years ago. He cannot consistently throw strikes today. Enough is enough.

3. Cherish every moment that we have with baseball. I mean, I can't really blame all the people who chose to spend their Sunday night watching a game that really didn't mean a thing.

Summer nights and baseball are cherished things for many of us. We're all crossing our fingers that this 60-game season and playoffs will be played out to its conclusion, but we don't really know what's going to happen with this virus and this godawful pandemic.

Basically, any time I have the chance to sit down and take in a ballgame, I'm going to do it. Even as Sunday's game dragged into the late innings and the regulars from both sides had finished their work for the evening, I continued to watch.

I'm doing that just in case the privilege of watching baseball goes away in the coming weeks. I pray it does not. It was good for the soul, and the fact that the Sox won, that's even better.

Andy Masur joins White Sox radio booth; latest on Field of Dreams game

A couple of White Sox notes from Tuesday:

First, Andy Masur will be the radio play-by-play voice of the Sox on WGN 720-AM this season. Masur will replace the late Ed Farmer and work with longtime analyst Darrin Jackson.

Farmer, who battled kidney disease throughout his life, died of an undisclosed illness April 1 at age 70.

Masur has filled in for Farmer on numerous occasions, including during some spring training games in March. Masur grew up in the Chicago area and has spent the past two seasons as a pregame host on Sox games.

The veteran broadcaster also worked in the Cubs' radio booth as an occasional fill-in for Pat Hughes when the North Siders were on WGN radio. He also spent eight years in San Diego as part of the Padres' radio broadcast team.

Reports indicate Masur has been given no guarantees past 2020, and replacing Farmer will be no easy task.

“Ed was a legend in his own right, and it was a well-deserved legendary status,” Masur told MLB.com on Tuesday. “The guy bled White Sox baseball. He pitched for them. He got a chance to grow up watching them and got a chance to be around them when they won a World Series. He had been around them as they’ve been rebuilding to what they hope to be here in the next couple of years.

“From my perspective, I go in and just kind of do what I do and hope that I make Ed proud and hope I make D.J. proud. I hope I give White Sox fans what they are looking for, as far as a game broadcast with information and making sure you know where the ball is and what the inning is and what the score is.”

Sox might play NL Central opponent in Iowa

Remember when the Sox were supposed to play the New York Yankees in the Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13?

Well, the Sox definitely won't be playing the Yankees. With this shortened season and a geographically based schedule, there will be no games against New York -- just games against clubs from the AL Central and NL Central.

The latest reporting says that Field of Dreams game could go on, but the opponent will be a National League team -- either the Cardinals, the Cubs or the Brewers.

Let me cast my vote: Bring on the Cardinals!

I'm pretty sure the eyes of Chicago will be on the six games between the Sox and the Cubs, no matter where they are played. Those games do not need an unusual venue to get extra attention.

So why not play St. Louis instead? Let's add a little juice -- and a national TV audience -- to a matchup between the Sox and Cardinals.