There’s something about the Chicago Cubs (73-53) and rain delays, isn’t there? After waiting out the weather for nearly an hour-and-a-half, the White Sox (65-59) folded against their North Side rivals, getting walked off on back-to-back nights, 4-3.
Up until tonight, Bryan Hudson had just a 1.29 ERA across six opener starts and had allowed only two home runs in all 54 appearances this season (51 2/3 innings). While watching the events unfold in the first inning, I felt like I was having déjà vu as Pete Crow-Armstrong mashed a leadoff home run for the second straight game, giving the North Siders an early lead, 1-0. The main difference from last night was that it wasn’t Seiya Suzuki who tossed the second dagger, but Michael Busch, who blasted the second solo shot of the inning to make it 2-0. Despite the chaos of the inning, Hudson got out of it without any further damage, though his ERA jumped from 1.29 to 3.42.
On the other side of the ball, Kevin Gausman began his outing with a pair of walks to Sam Antonacci and Munetaka Murakami, immediately putting pressure on him even with the two-run lead. Sadly, the White Sox couldn’t capitalize on the scoring threat: Miguel Vargas grounded into a double play, and Andrew Benintendi struck out to end the inning.
While he was able to work out of the jam in the first, Gausman could not maintain the Cubs’ lead for much longer. The South Siders were able to snag a run back in the top of the second after Chase Meidroth sparked a two-out rally with a single. Tristan Peters followed with another base hit, and Drew Romo made it three in a row, driving in Meidroth to cut the Cubs’ lead to 2-1. Sure, Romo’s batting average is still frightening, sitting at a cool .139, but he’s slashing .190/.227/.476 with a .702 OPS, two home runs and five RBIs in his last seven games. We will always take what we can get.
Once the Good Guys had seen Gausman the first time through the order, they continued to work him deep into counts. After his first at-bat, it felt likely that the North Siders weren’t going to give Murakami anything good to hit. Still, the lefty power hitter worked a full count before blasting his 29th home run of the season to lead off the third inning, making a dent in the Wrigley Field jumbotron in left and tying the game, 2-2.
The Good Guys carried their offensive momentum into the fourth, and Colson Montgomery kicked the inning off with a two-bagger into the right-field corner. Colson has seemingly been seeing the ball a lot better over the last week or so and continues to sprinkle in some hits to get back into his groove. Meidroth wasn’t able to move Colson over on his ground out, but Peters backed him up with his second hit of the day, driving Colson in with an RBI double to give the White Sox a 3-2 lead.
With two outs, the lineup flipped back to the top, but Gausman took a minute to stretch and work out what appeared to be a cramp in his glove hand. After being checked by the trainer and tossing a few pitches, he opted to remain in the game, ultimately winning the matchup against Antonacci, who struck out on a pitch in the dirt to strand Peters on second.
Gausman was still having trouble with his hand in the fifth, and though he struck out Murakami, he left the game after Miguel Vargas reached on an infield single. This put the North Siders in a tough spot without anyone warming up in their bullpen, but Craig Counsell turned to righthander Javier Assad to jump in on short notice. Proper warm-up or not, Assad shut the South Siders down for three straight innings, allowing just two hits while striking out two.
Once Hudson had left the game, Erick Fedde allowed a pair of hits and a walk to load the bases but recovered to escape the jam without allowing a run. Following the second, Fedde was lights out and racked up three consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the third, fourth and fifth to hold on to the lead and keep the Cubs scoreless. The Sox righty took a stab at the sixth, putting two runners on but recording two outs before Will Venable called on Huascar Brazobán to face Ian Happ. Brazobán got Happ to fly out to end the inning.
Hats off to Fedde for a phenomenal outing, as he took over without surrendering a single run to the Cubs while eating a bunch of innings in the process. He had the Good Guys in a great position to win the game, but Brazobán had a rough outing in the eighth. The righty walked the first two batters he faced and forced Venable to go to Grant Taylor earlier than anticipated. Taylor looked sharp against the first two batters, striking out both PCA and Suzuki for two huge outs. He got within one strike of escaping the inning before losing a full-count battle to Alex Bregman, who tied the game at 3-3 with a single to left.
And just like that, the déjà vu was back as the Cubs tied it late once again, with the Sox handing over another lead. The run ended up being charged to Brazobán, and Taylor was charged with his fifth blown save of the season. In the next at-bat, it looked as if Busch blasted a base hit up the middle to take the lead, but Meidroth went into a full-extension dive to make an outstanding play to save the game for the moment.
The White Sox were down to their last couple of chances at the plate, with the heart of the order due up in the eighth. Andrew Benintendi couldn’t pull the clutch card tonight and struck out for the first out of the inning. Braden Montgomery then launched a towering fly ball that ended up being caught against the left-center wall, just a few feet shy of a go-ahead home run. Colson ripped a two-out double thanks to a weird defensive attempt by Busch at first, but Meidroth grounded out softly to third, and that was that.
Just as Taylor was about to stroll out for the bottom of the eighth, the Cubs grounds crew pulled out the tarp in anticipation of a storm rolling through northern Chicagoland into the city. In their defense, it did start to rain about 10-15 minutes later, but maybe they worked a masterclass to keep Taylor off the mound a second time. I guess we’ll never know.
After a 1-hour, 28-minute rain delay, Trevor Richards came in to replace Taylor in the bottom of the eighth. Given the situation, things felt more intense and dicey than they actually were, but he induced three straight fly outs to shut the Cubs down, handing the game back to the offense for the ninth frame. Naturally, they couldn’t scrape any runs across, so the North Siders went into the bottom of the ninth with a tie game and PCA due up third. The South Siders even tried to conjure up some more magic with Randal Grichuk, but it wasn’t in the cards tonight. Antonacci drew his second walk of the night, which brought up Murakami in a prime spot, but he grounded out softly on a ball back to the pitcher, and to the bottom of the ninth we went.
Richards returned in the bottom of the ninth, and while he couldn’t control his changeup whatsoever, the fastball seemed to be working well enough. Carson Kelly led off the inning with a double into the left-field corner, putting the winning run in scoring position. Richards recovered to catch Michael Conforto looking for the first out. In a near-repeat of last night, Will Venable made the decision not to pitch to PCA, putting him on first with an intentional walk and creating a force play with Suzuki coming up.
Seiya popped the ball up into foul territory on the first-base side, and Murakami made a clutch sliding catch, barely getting his glove under the ball but somehow managing to hang on to it. With two outs and Bregman at the plate, things didn’t feel great considering he’d already driven in the game-tying run in the seventh. It’s a shame that things didn’t end differently, but Bregman ripped the first pitch he saw up the middle to score Kelly and give the Cubs a 4-3 walk-off win.
Back-to-back walk-off losses to the Cubs certainly sting, especially when the Good Guys outhit them 10-8. Both teams struggled with runners in scoring position — the White Sox went 2-for-11 while the Cubs went 2-for-12 — but the South Siders also grounded into two double plays, killing any momentum they might have had. The pitching staff did a great job after the first frame but ultimately couldn’t hold on to the lead against a tough Cubs lineup.
If you stayed awake for that one, I’m sorry, but at least we were in this together. The Good Guys have one more chance to avoid the sweep at Wrigley tomorrow but have yet to name a starter for the series finale. A good night’s sleep might not fully wash away the last two losses, but the White Sox will need to wake up ready to fight back and end this year’s Classic on a high note.
MVP
Erick Fedde: 4 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K
MVP Runners-Up
Munetaka Murakami: 1-for-4, R, RBI, BB, 2 K, HR
Colson Montgomery: 3-for-4, R, 2B
Tristan Peters: 2-for-4, RBI, 2B
Drew Romo: 1-for-3, RBI, K, 4-for-5 ABS challenges
Cold Cat
Bryan Hudson: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, K, 2 HR
Cold Cat Runners-Up
Huascar Brazobán: 1/3 IP, 0 H, R, 2 BB
Andrew Benintendi: 0-for-4, 2 K, GIDP
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-4, K
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