White Sox Comeback Falls Short In 5-4 Loss To Cubs In Crosstown Series Finale

CHICAGO –– Sunday’s Crosstown Series finale showed how slim margins can go a long way in deciding a baseball game. The White Sox rallied late in their rubber match against the Cubs at Rate Field, but couldn’t come up with one last clutch hit in the 5-4 loss, making earlier mistakes appear even more costly.

In the first inning, a ground ball left Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s bat with funky spin at just 51.8 mph, but it stayed fair down the third base line and slowly rolled into foul territory. That gave Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki enough time to score from first and second base, giving the Cubs a quick 2-0 lead.

Andrew Benintendi responded with a solo home run in the first, but Cubs starter Ben Brown settled in well thereafter. Brown had been struggling going into Sunday, allowing 14 earned runs across nine innings in his previous two starts. But he held the White Sox scoreless from the second through fifth innings to finish with his fewest earned runs allowed, one, since May 31.

"That guy today had a good fastball,” Benintendi said. “A big, tall guy, his extension's really good. It was 97, kind of feels more like 99, 100. He had a good fastball and a hard curveball, I think he threw around 90. Kind of got him a little bit in the first there, and then he kind of cruised. You just tip your cap."

The White Sox had another chance to score off Brown in the third, as Lenyn Sosa and Brooks Baldwin led off with back-to-back singles. Chase Meidroth’s infield pop up should have only been the second out, but Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner intentionally let the ball drop, goading Sosa into trying to advance to third base. Hoerner threw out Sosa for an inning-ending double play.

“That’s a play we talk about a lot, and [Sosa] just got stuck –– a little bit of a mental error there where he didn’t see the call being made,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “But that’s kind of an automatic one where you know that ball is out. He’s got to do a better job on that and he knows that and we discussed it.”

Like Brown, White Sox pitcher Sean Burke bounced back from a rough first inning and held the Cubs scoreless from the second through the fifth. He was one pitch away from getting out of the sixth, but Hoerner connected with an elevated fastball and drove it to center field for an RBI single.

Burke got ahead in the next at-bat, too –– this time against his college teammate Matt Shaw –– but the Cubs third baseman ripped a hanging slider to left field for a double. It appeared the White Sox were going to beat Hoerner home on the play, but catcher Edgar Quero couldn’t handle the one-hop from Meidroth on the rally. It was ruled a throwing error on Meidroth, allowing Hoerner to score and extending the Cubs’ lead to 4-1. That also extended Shaw’s hit streak to nine games.

Burke had a few positive takeaways from his outing, which was over after 4.2 innings with five hits, two earned runs, one walk and a career-high tying eight strikeouts. But he highlighted Crow-Armstrong’s double and two sliders in the sixth as a few pitches he’d like to have back.

“I thought the pitching was solid. Just frustrating not being able to finish that [sixth] inning,” Burke said. “I’m able to get out of that, got Hoerner down to two strike count and one more strike, one more out to get through that inning. If I’m able to clean that up, then we win that game instead of losing it by one run.”

The Cubs added what turned out to be a crucial insurance run in the eighth. With two outs and runners on first and second base, Quero threw from his knees in a pickoff attempt that created a rundown between first and second base with Hoerner.

After two throws, Ian Happ broke home, and pitcher Mike Vasil attempted to throw him out, which created a second rundown. Quero ran Happ back toward third base, but his throw hit off Happ, who ran through Colson Montgomery in front of third base. The official ruling was an error on Montgomery for obstruction, granting Happ home plate for another run and a 5-1 lead.

“Defensively, two rundowns where we really didn’t execute either of them,” Venable said. “The first one, Vargy’s got to do a better job of getting Hoerner going. First of all, nice job on the back pick, but Vargy’s got to get him going. Sosa’s got to cut the distance. And then obviously you can’t have an obstruction call. We’ve got to do a better job on the second rundown, too. We know if you don’t execute plays like that it’s going to hurt you. Today was a good example of that.”

Montgomery and Quero were both at fault, according to Venable.

“With where [Montgomery is] at, ideally, yes, you get back to the bag and give yourself some room to work towards the ball,” Venable said. “And then Q’s just got to give it up earlier, too. Just one where the spacing was a little tough and we’ve got to negotiate that better and get rid of the ball.”

Despite the costly base running and defensive mistakes, the White Sox still found themselves in position to win. After a two-out single from Mike Tauchman and a Meidroth double in the eighth, Benintendi slugged a three-run home run off Ryan Brasier to cut the deficit to 5-4.

In the bottom of the ninth, Luis Robert Jr. was hit by a 101.1 mph fastball from Cubs closer Daniel Palencia. Sosa stepped to the plate representing the winning run, but he grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

X-rays were negative on Robert’s right forearm postgame. Sunday was his first game back in the lineup after missing two games with right adductor tightness.

The White Sox came out of the All-Star break with perhaps their best stretch of the season, going 6-1 against the Pirates, Rays and Cubs. But they wrapped up the Crosstown Series with a sloppy loss and room for improvement with 56 games remaining.

"We lost the series, so obviously we're not happy with that,” Venable said. “We thought coming in, we put ourselves in a good position. You win the first one, you like your chances to get one of the next two to win the series. So we have things that we have to continue to work on and get better at and regroup here and go to work on the Phillies."

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