The Chicago Cubs return to Wrigley Field searching for their first series win of more than two games since May 10-12.
A 2-5 trip filled with missed opportunities in Cincinnati and St. Petersburg, Fla., sets up an important weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals as the Cubs try to get back to .500.
The White Sox keep finding heartbreaking ways to lose. They saw a four-run lead in the eighth inning vanish Monday against the Seattle Mariners, eventually losing 8-4 when Cal Raleigh hit a grand slam in the ninth. They suffered another walk-off defeat Wednesday, falling 2-1 in 10 innings.
The Sox salvaged the finale of the four-game series Thursday with a 3-2 win in 10 innings. Still, their road record sits at 6-29 entering a weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
Every Friday during the regular season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Cubs and White Sox. Want more? Sign up for our new newsletters.
In return to Cubs, Tyson Miller taking on bigger role in pen
Miller’s pitch usage has gone through a constant adjustment and tweaking phase each time the 28-year-old right-hander joined a new organization.
His return to the Cubs meant he was back with the team that drafted him in the fourth round in 2016, one of six franchises he has spent time with since June 2021. Some teams only liked how his fastball and curveball looked and didn’t want him using his changeup. Others just liked his fastball and wanted him to ditch the curveball. The Mariners, who the Cubs acquired him from a month ago, wanted Miller to stick with the fastball and a slider while adjusting the grip.
The curveball, though, is a pitch the Cubs find intriguing and have been encouraging him to continue to work on to pair with his fastball and slider. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy called it a usable pitched and pointed out how he recorded a strikeout with it in his outing Wednesday.
“He’s at a point in his career where he’s gone to all these different places and he’s heard all these different things and now he’s back around the people that were with him at the beginning and Miguel Amaya caught him in the minor leagues,” Hottovy said. “He’s at the point where he knows what his strengths are. He knows this is what’s gotten me to this really good point. Now I can mix in the other things when I need to.”
Miller has allowed only one run, two walks and struck out 10 in 11 innings with the Cubs.
“It’s extremely valuable for guys to know what makes them successful,” Hottovy said. “I also think it’s extremely valuable not being predictable and when you have the ability to trust what you do and then mix in the other things when you need to. It’s usually a good recipe for success.”
White Sox prospect Drew Thorpe ‘back down-to-earth’ after MLB debut
Less than 24 hours after making his major-league debut, Thorpe told the Tribune that things had “kind of settled down now.”
“Back down-to-earth, I guess,” Thorpe said Wednesday. “Pretty surreal feeling. I’m just back to work.”
Thorpe had an impressive outing Tuesday, allowing one earned run on three hits with four strikeouts and two walks against the Mariners. The No. 41 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America, Thorpe said he had some butterflies leading into the start.
“I think it was more just the anticipation throughout the day,” Thorpe said. “Once I got outside, getting through my routine, it was business as usual.
“Once I got outside, I kind of settled down and was able to relax a little bit.”
He jokingly added that his first warmup pitch, that went off the backstop, “was a good sign.”
Thorpe couldn’t decide on just one aspect for his favorite part of Tuesday.
“It was kind of the whole day,” Thorpe said. “Just family being here and being able to watch me and enjoy it with me. Not much more I can ask for.”
His next start is scheduled for Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
“Just take the good and siphon through the bad from the last (start) and try to be a little bit better the next time out,” Thorpe said. “Learn as you go and just continue to build.”
Number of the week: 13
Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning Thursday against the Mariners, extending the Sox’s streak of hitting at least one home run to a season-high 14 games. They were tied for second in the majors with 19 home runs in June through Wednesday, along with the San Diego Padres. The Baltimore Orioles have 27 homers this month.
Week ahead: Cubs
- Friday: vs. Cardinals, 1:20 p.m., Marquee
- Saturday: vs. Cardinals, 1:20 p.m., Marquee
- Sunday: vs. Cardinals, 12:05 p.m., Roku
- Monday: vs. Giants, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
- Tuesday: vs. Giants, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
- Wednesday: vs. Giants, 1:20 p.m., Marquee
- Thursday: off
As left-hander Justin Steele has worked to incorporate more secondary stuff — changeup, curveball, sinker — into his pitch mix, his fastball-slider combination remains a go-to tandem that continues to give opposing lineups trouble even when they know it’s coming.
Steele produced eight whiffs and eight called strikes with his fastball Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, and the movement yielded soft contact and only three hits in six shutout innings.
“I was really commanding my four (seam), getting it in on the righties, getting it above the barrel,” Steele said. “It had a little bit more cut to it today, was able to get it in on the hands, just felt good commanding. I felt like I was tunneling the slider and all that pretty well tonight. Threw some good curveballs as well. Felt like I was kind of in control out there.”
For as well as their starters have pitched for stretches, they haven’t been able to take advantage of the zeros being put up. Steele has allowed just two runs in his last four starts (25 innings) for a 0.72 ERA. He is the third Cubs pitcher to give up one earned run or fewer in at least four consecutive starts this season, joining Javier Assad (six starts from April 20-May 5) and Jameson Taillon (four starts from April 19-May).
The Cubs are only 1-8 in Steele’s starts this season.
“I thought Justin was awesome,” manager Craig Counsell said Thursday. “They made him work in that sixth inning, but he made some big pitches.”
Week ahead: White Sox
- Friday: at Diamondbacks, 8:40 p.m., NBCSCH
- Saturday: at Diamondbacks, 9:10 p.m., NBCSCH/FS1
- Sunday: at Diamondbacks, 3:10 p.m., NBCSCH
- Monday: off
- Tuesday: vs. Astros, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
- Wednesday: vs. Astros, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
- Thursday: vs. Astros, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
The Sox could have one of their more complete outfields in place for the series against the Diamondbacks.
Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. returned from the injured list last week, homering in his first game back on June 4 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He has five home runs in nine games since being reinstated — including a tying solo blast in the ninth inning as a pinch hitter Wednesday against the Mariners.
“I’ve been feeling better every day,” Robert said through an interpreter after Wednesday’s game. “It’s just a matter of getting those reps and going day by day.”
The Sox reinstated left fielder Andrew Benintendi from the IL ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Mariners. And Tommy Pham is in line to play this weekend after being sidelined by a left ankle sprain.
Pham and Robert have not appeared in the same game as teammates. Robert went on the IL on April 6 with a right hip flexor strain, and the Sox came to terms on a deal with Pham on April 15. The Sox announced Pham landed on the IL on June 4, the same day Robert came back.
What we’re reading this morning
- Cubs veteran reliever Héctor Neris continues to navigate traffic on the bases
- ‘I’m feeling confident about myself’: White Sox IF Lenyn Sosa showing improvement since returning to the majors
- Column: How to survive the next 33 days without the Bears and rookie QB Caleb Williams
- Road to 50 losses has been bumpy for White Sox. A look back at ‘milestones’ along the way.
- Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki blazing his own baseball path in the US via Stanford and the MLB Draft League
- Column: Trio of young pitchers must adjust on the fly if Cubs want to contend
- White Sox reinstate OF Andrew Benintendi and P Steven Wilson from IL, designate P Tim Hill for assignment
- Column: Summer reruns are the worst, but that’s what Cubs and White Sox fans can expect to see
Quotable
“He definitely comes obviously from a long line of pitchers in his family and was obviously taught really well how to how to pitch, how to navigate the game.” — Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy on reliever Mark Leiter Jr.
