The Cubs woke up their bats at Rate Field and turned the Crosstown series opener into a 10-5 win over the White Sox. After a stretch in which runs had been hard to find on the road, Chicago’s offense produced hits in every part of the lineup and controlled the game with timely contact, patient at-bats and steady pressure.
The result gave Cubs fans a loud night on the South Side, where chants for Pete Crow-Armstrong helped fuel the atmosphere late. Crow-Armstrong said, “It’s just a cool little rivalry,” and the Cubs backed up that feeling with their most complete offensive performance in several games.
A needed rebound after a quiet road trip
Chicago entered the matchup after scoring only five total runs across its previous five games against the Rangers and Braves. That came after a 25-game stretch in which the Cubs averaged 6.2 runs per game and won 21 times to move into first place in the National League Central.
The difference was clear from the start. Ian Happ drove in a run with a single in the first inning, giving the Cubs an early tone that the club had been missing during its recent skid. Craig Counsell said the group had been “a little bit light the last four or five days,” but called the night “a very good offensive night.”
Slumping hitters helped spark the surge
Several Cubs regulars broke out of recent cold spells as the lineup kept moving. Moisés Ballesteros ended an 0-for-26 slump with a single in the fourth inning, and that helped set up Carson Kelly’s RBI single.
Seiya Suzuki followed by ending his own 0-for-17 stretch with an RBI double in the fifth, a hit that chased White Sox starter Sean Burke from the game. Dansby Swanson also found his timing again, snapping an 0-for-18 slide with a leadoff double in the eighth before later scoring on a wild pitch.
Kelly was one of the biggest difference-makers, driving in four runs in all. Michael Busch added an RBI double in the fifth, giving the Cubs another key run in a game where almost every starter contributed.
The turning point came after the White Sox tied it
The White Sox briefly forced tension back into the game when Miguel Vargas launched a leadoff homer in the sixth off Cubs left-hander Ryan Rolison. That tied the score at 4-4, and Chicago threatened again by putting two more runners aboard before Trent Thornton entered and escaped the inning.
Counsell called the work of Thornton a “huge effort,” noting that the moment did not come in the ninth inning but still functioned like a save. The Cubs then answered in the seventh, when the offense quickly regained control with another decisive rally.
After singles from Alex Bregman and Suzuki, the Cubs loaded the bases with two outs when Matt Shaw was hit by a pitch. Kelly followed with an infield single up the third-base line, and Crow-Armstrong then delivered a run-scoring hit to right field to make it 6-4.
The eighth inning finished the job
Chicago put the game away with a four-run burst in the eighth. Swanson opened the frame with a double, and the White Sox struggled to find the strike zone as Jordan Hicks walked four batters in the inning.
One of those walks forced in a run, and Kelly capped the rally with a two-run ground-rule double that gave the Cubs a comfortable cushion. By the end of the night, Chicago had produced 14 hits, while all nine starters recorded at least one hit and 10 players reached base.
The numbers stood out because the Cubs had managed only 19 total hits in their previous five games. This was also the eighth time Chicago scored at least 10 runs and collected at least 14 hits against the White Sox, and the first such game on the South Side since a 12-5 win on May 8, 2014.
Crow-Armstrong said the club expects nights like this to be part of what the offense can do when it is working well. Counsell agreed that the group made every at-bat difficult for the White Sox, pointing to the mix of hits, walks and aggressive baserunning that gave the Cubs control from start to finish.
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