The Chicago White Sox squandered a five-run lead Tuesday night en route to sustaining their 12th straight loss in the opener of their two-game Crosstown Classic series with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Now the White Sox, losers of 16 of their last 17 games, will try to avoid tying the second-longest losing streak in team history in Wednesday night’s series finale.
The White Sox lost 13 games in a row in 1924. The team’s 15-game slide in 1967-68 serves as the franchise’s longest skid.
Right-hander Erick Fedde (4-1, 3.12 ERA) will start Wednesday for the White Sox, who haven’t won since May 21, when they blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0. Fedde is 0-0 with a 5.56 ERA in two career starts against the Cubs.
It will be Fedde’s second career start at Wrigley Field. His first came during his rookie year in 2017 when he received a no-decision in a 9-4 victory by his Washington Nationals. The 2014 first-round pick out of UNLV allowed four runs on eight hits over 5 1/3 innings in that contest while walking four and striking out seven.
Right-hander Jameson Taillon (3-2, 2.84 ERA) will start for the Cubs, who will try to win a series for the first time since May 10-12, when they captured two of three games at Pittsburgh.
The White Sox looked as if they were going to snap their losing streak in Tuesday’s series opener, jumping to a 5-0 lead in the fourth inning. Korey Lee had a two-run double, and Lenyn Sosa added a two-run homer to highlight the frame.
But a 42-minute rain delay in the top of the fifth gave the Cubs a chance to regroup. Dansby Swanson cut the deficit to 5-1 with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, and Christopher Morel and pinch-hitter Patrick Wisdom tied it an inning later after each launched a two-run homer.
Luis Robert Jr., activated earlier in the day from the injured list, put the White Sox back in front 6-5 with a mammoth 448-foot home run to left-center in the seventh. Ian Happ, however, capped a 3-for-4 night with his second double, a line drive into the corner in right, to drive in Cody Bellinger and Morel for the game-winning hit in the eighth.
“The energy here is always fantastic, and (with) the White Sox here in town, a lot of fun,” Happ said. “That was a great game.”
The Cubs improved to 4-1 in their last five meetings against their South Side rivals. The five-run comeback was the largest of the season for the Cubs, who also rallied from five runs down in a 10-7 win over the White Sox last July 26.
“It was a good ballgame with a lot of back and forth,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We had some big hits, and we needed some big hits. It was a fun night really. To score late-inning runs like that makes for a fun game.”
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol obviously had a different perspective afterward.
“This one obviously got away from us,” he said. “Our guys really battled out there. Great environment. We’ve got to close these things out. We really do.”
–Field Level Media