Cubs 7, White Sox 6: (°0°)

“If the Cubs had lost THAT game…” some of you must have said.

But they didn’t.

Yes, they tried really hard to blow a 7-0 lead, but in the end they held on – just – to a 7-6 victory over the White Sox, their third straight win and ninth in their last 13 games.

On the 7-6 win over the Sox for the third time this year, from JohnW53 of BCB:

Before their three 7-6 victories over the Sox this season, the Cubs had beaten the Sox 7-6 just once, at home on June 6, 1998, in Game 5 of the Interleague Series. Friday’s game was the 145th.

More:

Now let’s rewind to the beginning of this game.

With just four pitches, the Cubs took the lead over the Sox and their best pitcher Garrett Crochet. Ian Happ hit a ball into the seats in left field (VIDEO).

With this home run, his 19th, Happ took the Cubs team lead from traded Christopher Morel. More on Happ’s leadoff home run from BCB’s JohnW53:

Ian Happ’s home run was the 106th by the first Cubs batter in an away game since 1912, the first season for which baseball-refrerence.com has searchable game-level data.

The previous goal was scored by Christopher Morel on May 15 in Atlanta. Christopher More had scored the three goals before that and Rafael Ortega had scored the three goals before Morel.

Happ has now accomplished this four times. The previous times were on Opening Day 2018 in Miami, on August 29, 2020 in Cincinnati and on September 1, 2020 in Pittsburgh.

Alfonso Soriano hit 12, Rick Monday five.

Patrick Wisdom hit a pop-up and Seiya Suzuki followed with a single. Cody Bellinger then increased the lead to 3-0 for the Cubs (VIDEO).

Jameson Taillon threw two scoreless innings, allowing one hit in each, and then the Cubs blew the game open in the third inning (or so we thought!). Bellinger hit a single with one out and Isaac Paredes hit a ball into the seats for his second Cubs home run (VIDEO).

The Cubs weren’t done hitting home runs against Crochet. It’s your turn, Nico Hoerner! (VIDEO)

After Dansby Swanson hit a single, Crochet was brought out. It was the worst start of his career and the first time he allowed four home runs in a game.

Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with a single (though the Sox nearly threw him out for taking a turn too wide), which moved Swanson to third base, where he scored on this ground out by Miguel Amaya (VIDEO).

It’s 7-0 in the third inning against the worst team in baseball, a team that could set all kinds of losing records this year, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, you know the answer to that question: “Lots.” Taillon managed to go scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, but the Sox scored four times against him in the fourth inning. The Sox had five hits in that inning, including a home run by Andrew Vaughn.

Still, the Cubs offense is going well and they will score more points against the Sox’s beleaguered bullpen, right?

You know the answer to that one too, and some of the Cubs’ problems this year were highlighted by a fifth inning in which they had three singles but didn’t score. Hoerner led off with a single but was thrown out trying to steal a ball. One out later, PCA hit another single, his third hit of the game. PCA advanced to second base on a passed ball, and then this happened (VIDEO).

We all know PCA is fast and in the 99th percentile of MLB runners. But the ball was pretty flat and maybe he should have stayed on third base this time when the top of the order was up. He got thrown out and it wasn’t particularly close.

I noted above that PCA’s single was his third hit of the game. He had also hit a triple in the second inning but was helpless. You have to get that runner in, even though the Cubs were leading 3-0 at that point and seemed to be in control of the game.

And here’s why. Taillon allowed another home run from Andrew Benintendi to lead off the fifth inning, making it 7-5. Yuck. And here’s yet another example of a struggling starter staying in the game in the fifth inning to get a “win.” Do individual wins mean that much to starters? Or is winning the game more important? You know what the right answer is, or at least should be.

So the score is 7-5 going into the sixth inning. With one out, Michael Busch singled for Wisdom. He got to second base one out later when Bellinger got a walk and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. A single could have given the Cubs a lead, but Paredes grounded out and the inning ended.

Tyson Miller threw a scoreless sixth inning after allowing a leadoff single, in part because Miguel Amaya made this beautiful throw to catch Korey Lee attempting a steal (VIDEO).

The Cubs were down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning. And then the Sox got within one point on Benintendi’s second home run of the game off Drew Smyly. Craig Counsell called up Porter Hodge to face Andrew Vaughn, whom he threw out to end the inning.

Mike Tauchman, batting for Amaya, was hit by a pitch early in the eighth inning and Ian Happ singled him to second base. Busch hit a line drive to short that was caught well by Nicky Lopez and Tauchman doubled to second base. Unfortunately, there was nothing you could do about it and Suzuki flied out to right to end the inning.

The Cubs were also able to rely on good defense from their catcher in the second half of the eighth inning. Christian Bethancourt came into the game after Tauchman hit a PH hit for Amaya. Gavin Sheets opened the inning with a single and Corey Julks walked for him.

Bethancourt took care of it (VIDEO).

The Cubs fell behind 1-2-3 in the ninth inning, partly due to this diving catch by Lenyn Sosa against Nico Hoerner (VIDEO).

So it was time for Heart Attack Hector Neris to end the game for the Cubs. He allowed a leadoff single and then Brooks Baldwin laid down a bunt that Bethancourt couldn’t block. He got hit and now the tying AND winning runs are on base with no one out.

Neris got the next two Sox to hit routine fly balls into the outfield, but then walked Benintendi to load the bases, so now we’re in the “this has got to be a joke” situation.

With the score at 1:1 for Vaughn, the game ended like this (VIDEO).

Well, that’s not how you want to win a game against a team as bad as the White Sox this year. The Cubs did everything right against Crochet, but then collapsed offensively for the rest of the game. The bullpen did a passable job, allowing only one run in four innings, but I could do without that kind of drama.

Here are Counsell’s post-game comments (VIDEO).

Once again, the Cubs’ offense faltered in the late innings. They had 14 hits in the first five innings and then just two. Games like this have to be decided, and this one… wasn’t decided.

Still, a win is a win. The Cubs handed the Sox their 90th loss of the year, and every game when I fill out the lineup on my scorecard before the game, I write down the team scores. Writing “28-89” for the White Sox just seemed unrealistic, although having followed their losses this year, it just doesn’t seem possible that a team could be THAT bad. And yet, here we are.

One thing I did do at South Side Ballpark was drink one of those Campfire Milkshakes they talk so much about. I can report that they are as good as advertised and at $15, not all that expensive (at least compared to the prices of other ballpark fare these days). It’s sad that the best thing about a baseball team in any given year is a meal at their home stadium. It occurred to me that if they had brought nine milkshakes to the field during their 21-game losing streak, they couldn’t have done any worse. And it might have been more entertaining.

The Cubs won the Crosstown Cup by winning this game, whatever that means, and will try to defeat the Sox on the season Saturday night at “The Rate,” as some now call South Side Park. Justin Steele will start for the Cubs and Chris Flexen will start for the White Sox. Game time is 6:15 p.m. CT and televised tonight on Fox-TV (regional – coverage map). Here’s your reminder: If you live outside the Cubs/Sox joint market area and have an MLB.TV subscription, you can watch this game on that service even if the game isn’t on the Fox affiliate in your market.