Chicago baseball report: Trade rumors are swirling for the Cubs and White Sox
After dropping their series opener, the Cubs posted three consecutive wins against the St. Louis Cardinals to keep them in position to potentially add at the trade deadline.
Their 7-2 victory Sunday at Wrigley Field capped their series win versus their division rival to keep the Cubs (48-51) climbing toward .500.
The Sox completed their longest trip of the season Sunday with a brutal 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins in 12 innings. They squandered a three-run lead in the ninth on the way to getting swept.
A trip that began with a high of taking two of three from the Atlanta Braves came crashing to the ground with the team losing two of three to the New York Mets and all three to the Twins.
With trade rumors swirling, the Sox return home Tuesday for the City Series.
Drew Smyly’s rotation role unclear going forward
Manager David Ross had played coy earlier in the week when asked about two “to be determined” entries as the Cubs’ probable pitchers for Saturday’s and Sunday’s starts versus the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jameson Taillon made his on-turn start Sunday, however, Ross utilized an opener Saturday for Drew Smyly’s day. Right-hander Michael Fulmer pitched two innings, allowing one run on a home run off his first pitch before Smyly took over.
The lefty allowed five runs (four earned) and six hits in 3 2/3 innings in the Cubs’ 8-6 win. Smyly’s spot in the rotation is lined up for Friday in St. Louis, but it’s unclear how or if Smyly will be used.
“We’ll address that when his time comes,” Ross said Sunday. “It’ll be TBD again, I can promise you that.”
Smyly, 34, owns a 7.08 ERA over his last 10 outings and has especially struggled over his last five appearances, pitching beyond the fourth inning only once. He’s been a little unlucky in that stretch with opposing hitters owning an extreme .355 Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) while the Cubs’ defense has struggled at times behind him. Smyly didn’t help himself, either, Saturday with a defensive performance that included a fielding error.
“(Saturday) could have been a lot different if defensively plays a little bit better,” Ross said. “Again, it’s a results-based moment and you’ve got to get some momentum. It’s my job to find those moments to give him a little bit of length and try to build some of that confidence back.
“Showing confidence in players, also trying to find something to get them mentally focused when they go out there to distract from ‘oh, there I go getting blooped again’ or ‘the umpire didn’t make this call.’ You can get down these rabbit holes when things aren’t going well and you tend to focus on the negative and continue to look at the positives. He does a pretty good job of that.”
Smyly and the Cubs know how effective he can be when he gets locked in and rolls momentum from start to start. In his first 10 starts this year, Smyly posted a 2.60 ERA while hitters’ BABIP sat at .243. He has run into trouble when falling behind in the count and struggling to consistently throw strikes.
“He’s a guy that’s been around a really long time and seen a lot of different things, been through a lot of adversity,” Ross said. “So he sees it for what it is and I think he knows he can be better and he also knows there’s a lot of bad luck involved there.”
Pedro Grifol chooses Eloy Jiménez’s bat over legs
Eloy Jiménez exited the July 16 game against the Atlanta Braves after one at-bat because of left groin tightness.
The Sox designated hitter sat the next two games before returning Thursday against the New York Mets at Citi Field.
He made an immediate impact with an RBI single in his first at-bat. He had two hits Thursday and two more Friday against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Jiménez had a single Saturday.
“He’s not running down the line and I choose to put him in there with that kind of effort down the line,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said after Saturday’s 3-2 loss. “I want his bat over his legs. I want to make sure I get that out there clearly for everybody. I choose his bat over his legs. That’s all he can give us.
“I’ll continue to monitor that and if I think it becomes a problem for us where he’s going to get hurt or compromise us in any way running the bases, then I’ll make a change.”
Expanding on the topic before Sunday’s game, Grifol said, “I don’t need him to steal a base. I need him to swing.
“I know Eloy can give us 60% down the line but he can still swing it at a high level. I just think we need offense. We need his bat in there.”
Jiménez homered in the second inning Sunday. Grifol noted Jiménez’s drive to be in the lineup also stands out.
“It’s good for him to go and play through some of this stuff,” Grifol said.
What we’re reading this morning
Column: City Series arrives with both the Cubs and Chicago White Sox at a crossroads
Behind Jameson Taillon’s solid start and Cody Bellinger’s home run, Cubs win third straight game
White Sox squander late lead and lose 5-4 to the Minnesota Twins in 12, drop to 19 games under .500
As Kyle Hendricks spins another great outing in win, his Cubs future remains an unknown
Week ahead: Cubs
When Nick Madrigal began his rehab assignment Friday with Triple-A Iowa, the hope was playing in three games over the weekend would set him up to rejoin the team for Tuesday’s series opener against the White Sox. Madrigal was scheduled to be in Sunday’s lineup as Iowa’s designated hitter, however, he was scratched because of general lower body fatigue.
A right hamstring strain has sidelined Madrigal the last 16 games. After going hitless in his first rehab start Friday, Madrigal posted a two-hit game Saturday. When asked whether Madrigal was still on track to rejoin the Cubs following Monday’s off day, Ross needed more information on how Sunday went for the infielder, a comment made before he was officially taken out of Iowa’s lineup.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Ross said Sunday morning. “I’ll talk to the trainers after he plays or after today’s game and see what happens.”
Madrigal had been getting in an offensive groove leading up to the injury to complement steady defense at third base. In his last 17 games prior to going on the injured list July 4, Madrigal hit .359 with four doubles, one home run with eight RBIs, a .424 on-base percentage and .933 OPS in that span.
Monday: off
Tuesday: at White Sox, 7:10 p.m., Marquee
Wednesday: at White Sox, 7:10 p.m., Marquee
Thursday: at Cardinals, 6:45 p.m., Marquee
Friday: at Cardinals, 7:15 p.m., Marquee
Saturday: at Cardinals, 6:15 p.m., Marquee
Sunday: at Cardinals, 1:15 p.m., Marquee
Week ahead: White Sox
Andrew Vaughn estimated he’s watched the video 100 times.
“What sucks the most is I do wear a shin guard and a foot guard, and the way you swing and rotate, I guess (that’s how he got hit in an exposed spot),” Vaughn said Saturday at Target Field, describing the foul ball that led to a bruised left foot. “It hits right where there’s no pad.”
Vaughn last played Tuesday against the New York Mets. During that game, he fouled a pitch off his foot which led to the setback. He agreed when asked if it was a 1-in-1,000 shot.
“We wear that to protect ourselves and it didn’t protect me,” Vaughn said.
Grifol is hopeful Vaughn will be able to play Tuesday against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field, but the Sox are not ruling out a trip to the injured list.
“He tried to hit a little bit, but it’s still sore,” Grifol said Sunday. “We’ll wait and see tomorrow how he’s doing. And then we’ll make a decision. He’s walking around. He’s better. But we’ll see.”
Monday: off
Tuesday: vs. Cubs, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Wednesday: vs. Cubs, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Thursday: vs. Guardians, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Friday: vs. Guardians, 6:10 p.m., Apple TV+
Saturday: vs. Guardians, 6:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Sunday: vs. Guardians, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
This week in Chicago baseball
July 24, 1948: White Sox’s Pat Seerey becomes first player to strike out seven times in a doubleheader
The left fielder fanned in all four plate appearances versus the Yankees’ Spec Shea in a 6-2 Sox loss. Though he added three more strikeouts in Game 2 at Yankee Stadium, Seerey redeemed himself with a home run and a single in an 8-4 win.
July 24, 1968: Hoyt Wilhelm breaks Cy Young’s record for appearances
Wilhelm pitched the ninth inning of the White Sox’s 1-0 loss to the Athletics at Comiskey Park for his 907th major-league appearance. The Hall of Famer retired in 1972 with 1,070 appearances, which now ranks sixth all-time. Jesse Orosco holds the record with 1,252.
July 24, 2022: Minnie Miñoso inducted posthumously into Hall of Fame
Miñoso’s induction, Paul Sullivan wrote in the Tribune, culminated a long and complicated journey to Cooperstown. The former White Sox great repeatedly was deemed unworthy from his original retirement in 1964 to his death at 90 in 2015.
The final heartbreak for the “Cuban Comet” came in 2014, when he earned only eight of the 12 votes needed from a 15-member veterans committee, which wound up electing no one. Miñoso died the next year.
After the 2020 Golden Era ballot was postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Miñoso gained six votes on the 2021 ballot, finishing with 14 votes from a 16-member committee that included former Commissioner Bud Selig, an influential supporter.
They say life is all about timing, and Miñoso’s time finally arrived. It was too late for him to revel in the celebration, but at least he made it. Though baseball writers and voting Hall of Fame players let him down, in the end Miñoso was aided by MLB’s reckoning with its shameful, racist past, which led to the Negro Leagues officially being recognized as a major league in 2020.
July 25, 1956: Roberto Clemente beats Cubs with inside-the-park grand slam
The Cubs had rallied from a 4-0 deficit with seven runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to take an 8-5 lead at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. After two walks and a single loaded the bases, Jim Brosnan relieved Turk Lown and the 21-year-old Clemente hit Brosnan’s first pitch over the left fielder’s head and to the fence.
“After the ball struck the fencing, it rolled along the cinder warning track toward center field,” according to SABR.org. “The three runners easily scored and Clemente ignored the outstretched arms and stop sign of Pirates manager and third-base coach Bobby Bragan as the relay throw came in from center fielder Solly Drake to Ernie Banks to catcher Hobie Landrith.
“The last moments of the improbable win were captured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: ‘He slid, missed the plate, then reached back to rest his hand on the rubber with the ninth Pirate run in a 9-8 victory as the crowd of 12,431 went goofy with excitement.’”
July 25, 1961: Roger Maris hits four homers in doubleheader vs. White Sox
Maris reached 40 homers for the year en route to his record-breaking 61-homer season. The Yankees took both games at Yankee Stadium, 5-1 and 12-0, and Maris moved 25 games ahead of Babe Ruth’s 1927 pace.
July 25, 2015: Cole Hamels throws first no-hitter vs. Cubs in 50 years
The idea of Hamels possibly being traded to the Cubs was on everyone’s mind, Paul Sullivan wrote in the Tribune, when the 31-year-old veteran stepped onto the mound at Wrigley Field on a sweltering Saturday afternoon in the final days before the trade deadline.
It did turn out to be Hamels’ last start as a Phillie, though he was traded to the Rangers, not the Cubs, five days later. (The Cubs eventually acquired him from the Rangers in July 2018.)
It was a memorable way to go out.
With the fans on their feet and Cubs rookie slugger Kris Bryant at bat with two outs in the ninth, Hamels watched helplessly as Bryant cracked a long fly to deep center that appeared headed to the bleachers.
Center fielder Odubel Herrera drifted back, came in, lost his footing and made a diving catch on the warning track, kicking up a ton of dust and emerging with the ball to save the no-hitter.
“That was definitely the one pitch I was glad I got away with,” Hamels said. “You have a great hitter up there in Kris Bryant, and to be able to keep that in the ballpark and for Herrera making that amazing play ... a surreal moment.”
It was the first time the Cubs had been no-hit in 7,920 games, since Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against them on Sept. 9, 1965, at Dodger Stadium.
July 26, 2005: Greg Maddux records 3,000th career strikeout
A lingering storm at Wrigley Field delayed Maddux’s quest for nearly three hours, but the inevitability of the milestone made thousands of fans wait patiently for a chance to witness a little history.
After the rain subsided, Maddux took the mound against the Giants at 9:48 p.m. in the latest start time since night games were introduced at Wrigley in 1988. But the fans’ patience was rewarded.
Maddux got Omar Vizquel to look at a called third strike to end the third inning as he became the 13th member of the 3,000-strikeout club and the ninth pitcher with both 3,000 strikeouts and 300 victories. He received a loud standing ovation and hugs from his teammates as he walked off the mound, and catcher Michael Barrett calmly handed him the ball.
Maddux then ventured out of the dugout for a curtain call before getting back to business. In the long run, the Cubs’ 3-2 loss in 11 innings was more important to Maddux than any milestone.
“I would much rather have gotten no strikeouts and won. Trust me,” Maddux said. “But it’s pretty cool to get there. Not that many guys have done it.”
July 27, 1950: Phillies’ Del Ennis drives in seven runs in seventh and eighth innings vs. Cubs
Ennis doubled with the bases loaded in the seventh and hit a grand slam in the eighth in the Phillies’ 13-3 victory at Shibe Park.
Quotable
“I think just being professional and still showing up. There’s never any excuse not to give everything you have,” — Dylan Cease on where the Sox go after falling 18 games under .500 on Saturday.
