The day after the great storm of dust, everyone in Chicago scratches their heads, the sun returned to Wrigley Field on Saturday, just in time for Match 2 of the City series.
But that did not mean that the unpredictable winds of Wrigley made the stadium facilitated, because the manager of the White Sox Will Venable tried to explain to his players before the series.
“We are preparing them and we talk about them and then you just have to go out and discover how to play games,” said Venable before the match. “The wind will do different things. The sun is still changing. It is really up to the player to understand it sometimes. ”
But the SOXs did not understand it, leading to a 7-3 defeat against the cubs before a noisy crowd of 40,134.
It could have been worse, but the Cubs left 14 men on the basis to prevent the match from becoming completely uncontrollable, as he did in their 13-3 victory on Friday, which was also helped by SOX players.
The wind exploded on the right at 21 mph, which is only another day in the office for the cubs. Pete Crow-Armstrong was able to solve it during the third round, taking a back in the Ivy for Rob Joshua Palacios. But Palacios could not do the same in the right field in the sixth.
By dragging 5-3 with two on an error of launching two outings by Lenyn Sosa, Palacios badly judged a Bruján Vidal flight ball and watched him bounce on his head and in the basket for a double RBI of the rule of the ground.
“Wrigley can play in different ways,” said the second goal of Cubs, Nico Hoerner. “It was well covered. It can be an excellent score environment, or not so much. Our mentality was that it was to our advantage despite everything. ”
Addition of venable: “It happened (Friday), it happened today. It is part to play here and it cost us again. Just one of those things where you have to fight, do everything you can and hope you can play games.”
Watching Palacios played badly on the stolen balls in the last two days makes Kyle Tucker's defense in his first season by playing Wrigley even more impressive.
“Good baseball player, that's all that there is to say,” said the stop stop inby Swanson about Tucker. “Trust your abilities and it is impressive to look at daily.”
Game 2 photos: Cubs Beat White Sox 7-3 in the City series at Wrigley Field
Sean Burke's solo circuit stroke in the fifth and two simple points of Miguel Amaya and Crow-Armstrong in the second led the Cubs. Swanson has reached the base four times, scored three points and stole a base, continuing to bounce back from its collapse at the start of the season which dropped its average below. 200.
Leaving Matthew Boyd granted three points in six rounds with eight sticks to the stick and without walking, his 17th consecutive match granting three points deserved or less. He also has 23 stick withdrawals and no promenade during his last three departures.
Boyd brought his two young sons to the post-match press conference and asked them what they thought of the game.
“Well,” they both replied.
“Short but sweet,” said Boyd.
This roughly sums up the state of the cubs.
SOX launchers, on the other hand, issued 11 bullets, including two intentional. It is not a recipe for success, especially with a young pitch staff who has little margin of error.
The Cubs therefore won their seventh consecutive match of the City series, dating from 2023, and equaled the series of all time 74-74. The Cubs broadcaster, Pat Hughes, who broadcasts each of the 148 games, told me on Saturday that the rivalry of Crosstown is almost always up to the media threshing.
As a person who covered them all, of the inaugural game in 1997 in which the star of Sox Frank Thomas and Cub Brian Mcrae were standing around the hitting cage beforehand and debating whose fans were drunk, I can attest that the City series has always been the gift that continues to give.
But the first round of the two series of this year has not yet respected its usual high standards.
There was no controversy. No extracurricular size after home shopping. No nail bite. And no Ozzie Guillen on the scene to tell great stories about the rats of Wrigley Field. Chicago Sports Network, the SOX network that employs Guillen, refused to send its crew before and after the stadium match for the first two games, perhaps to save dishes and mileage.
The CHSN crew did not miss much by not being part of the stadium. The SOX fell to 14-32, and any momentum of the consecutive victories of the series against the Marlins of Miami and Cincinnati Reds were evaporated.
The Cubs improved at 4-1 to start their stretch of 21 games against the UND500 teams. The difficult calendar at first seems to have helped the level of comfort now that they are faced with the least lights like the Marlins and the Sox.
“Everyone in this league is obviously in this league for a reason,” said Swanson, repeating the secular mantra of good teams that have beaten bad teams.
Never mind.
The lesson we learned so far from the first two games in the City series? It is not a good Sox team.
Short but not so soft.
