The day after the big dust storm had everyone in Chicago scratching their heads, the sun returned to Wrigley Field on Saturday, just in time for Game 2 of the City Series.
But that didn’t mean the unpredictable winds of Wrigley made the ballpark any easier, as White Sox manager Will Venable tried to explain to his players before the series.
“We prepare them for it and we talk about it and then you just have to go out and experience it and figure out how to make plays,” Venable said before the game. “The wind is going to do different things. The sun is always changing. It’s really up to the player to figure it out sometimes.”
But the Sox did not figure it out, leading to a 7-3 loss to the Cubs before a raucous crowd of 40,134.
It could’ve been worse, but the Cubs left 14 men on base to keep the game from getting completely out of hand, as it did Friday in their 13-3 win, which also was aided by some Sox misplays.
The wind was blowing out to right at 21 mph, which is just another day at the office for the Cubs. Pete Crow-Armstrong was able to solve it in the third inning, making a running backhanded grab at the ivy to rob Joshua Palacios. But Palacios was unable to do likewise in right field in the sixth.
Trailing 5-3 with two on after a two-out throwing error by Lenyn Sosa, Palacios misjudged a Vidal Bruján fly ball and watched it bounce over his head and into the basket for a ground-rule RBI double.
“Wrigley can play a bunch of different ways,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “It’s been well covered. It can be a great run-scoring environment, or not so much. Our mentality has been that it’s to our advantage regardless.”
Added Venable: “It happened (Friday), it happened again today. It’s part of playing here and it cost us again. Just one of those things where you’ve got to battle, do everything you can and hope you’re able to make plays.”
Watching Palacios misplay fly balls in right the last two days makes Kyle Tucker’s defense in his first season playing right at Wrigley that much more impressive.
“Good baseball player, that’s all there really is to say,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said of Tucker. “Trusts in his ability and it’s impressive to watch on a daily basis.”
Game 2 photos: Cubs beat White Sox 7-3 in City Series at Wrigley Field
Swanson’s solo home run off Sean Burke in the fifth and two-run singles by Miguel Amaya and Crow-Armstrong in the second led the Cubs. Swanson reached base four times, scored three runs and stole a base, continuing to rebound from his early-season slump that dropped his average below .200.
Starter Matthew Boyd allowed three runs over six innings with eight strikeouts and no walks, his 17th straight game allowing three or fewer earned runs. He also has 23 strikeouts and no walks over his last three starts.
Boyd brought his two young sons into the postgame news conference and asked them what they thought about the game.
“Good,” they both replied.
“Short but sweet,” Boyd said.
That pretty much summed up the state of the Cubs.
Sox pitchers, meanwhile, issued 11 walks, including two intentional. It’s not a recipe for success, especially with a young pitching staff that has little margin for error.
So the Cubs won their record seventh straight game of the City Series, dating to 2023, and tied the all-time series 74-74. Cubs broadcaster Pat Hughes, who has broadcast every one of the 148 games, told me Saturday that the crosstown rivalry almost always lives up to the hype.
As someone who has covered them all, from the inaugural game in 1997 in which Sox star Frank Thomas and Cub Brian McRae stood around the batting cage beforehand and debated whose fans were drunker, I can attest the City Series always has been the gift that keeps on giving.
But Round 1 of this year’s two series has yet to meet its usual lofty standards.
There have been no controversies. No extracurricular grandstanding after home runs. No nail-biters. And no Ozzie Guillen on the premises to tell tall tales about the Wrigley Field rats. Chicago Sports Network, the Sox’s network that employs Guillen, declined to send its pre- and postgame crew to the ballpark for the first two games, perhaps to save on gas fare and mileage.
The CHSN crew didn’t miss much by not being in the ballpark. The Sox fell to 14-32, and any momentum from back-to-back series wins over the Miami Marlins and Cincinnati Reds evaporated.
The Cubs improved to 4-1 to start their 21-game stretch against sub-.500 teams. The tough schedule early on seems to have helped the comfort level now that they’re facing the lesser lights like the Marlins and Sox.
“Everybody in this league is obviously in this league for a reason,” Swanson said, repeating the age-old mantra of good teams that beat up on bad teams.
Whatever.
The lesson we’ve learned so far from the first two games of the City Series? This is not a good Sox team.
Short but not so sweet.
