Cubs erase 5-run deficit to beat White Sox 10-7 and sweep the City Series: ‘It was loud, fun, and it’s really hot’
Reports swirled of possible trade destinations for Chicago White Sox starter Lance Lynn throughout Wednesday afternoon.
The right-hander was still with the Sox on Wednesday night, starting against the Cubs.He didn’t make it out of the fifth inning in one of the wildest City Series games in recent years.
The Sox had a five-run lead after four innings. It wasn’t enough.
The Cubs scored in a variety of ways during a six-run fifth inning, including on a strikeout-wild pitch and two bases-loaded walks, to rally and beat the Sox 10-7 in front of a sellout crowd of 37,214.
The Cubs swept the two-game series to move one under the .500 mark (50-51). The Sox are a season-high 21 games under .500 (41-62).
“It was loud, fun, and it’s really hot, but it’s in kind of a fun way,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “You just embrace it, one of those games that just feels like a doubleheader and you just keep going and ended up on the right side of it with contributions from so many different people and obviously our bullpen was just incredible today in settling that game down.”
It was all Sox early Wednesday.
Eloy Jiménez had a two-run single in the first and a two-run double in the fourth to help the Sox to a 7-2 lead. The double knocked Cubs starter Marcus Stroman out of the game, with the right-hander allowing seven runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.
It looked like the Sox were going to stop their slide.
The Cubs had other plans.
Mike Tauchman began the fifth with a slow roller down the first-base line. He beat Lynn’s throw to first. Hoerner got hit by a pitch and Ian Happ followed with an RBI single.
Seiya Suzuki walked with one out to load the bases. Lynn rebounded and struck out Dansby Swanson.
He was one pitch away from getting out of the jam, getting Christopher Morel in an 0-2 hole. Morel singled to left and two runs scored to cut the Sox lead to 7-5.
Joe Kelly replaced Lynn and got Miles Mastrobuoni to swing on a pitch out of the zone for strike three. The ball skipped away from catcher Seby Zavala for a wild pitch and a run scored as Mastrobuoni was safe at first.
Kelly hit Yan Gomes to load the bases again. He then issued back-to-back walks to Tauchman and Hoerner as the Cubs completed the stunning comeback to take an 8-7 lead.
The six runs came on just three hits.
Lynn allowed seven runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 4 2/3 innings.
“He just made a couple of mistakes,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of Lynn. “It just seemed that every time he left the ball out over the plate they made good contact.
“He gave us everything he had.”
Kelly exited without retiring a batter to suffer the loss. He allowed the one run on no hits with two walks and the one strikeout that got away.
“He had good breaking balls, unfortunate that ball got by Seby,” Grifol said.
Ian Happ and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back homers against Keynan Middleton in the eighth to send the Cubs to their fifth straight win and hand the Sox their fifth straight loss.
While all the talk earlier in the day was about a possible Lynn trade, the Sox ended the evening by sending starter Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo López to the Los Angeles Angels for minor-league catcher Edgar Quero and left-handed pitcher Ky Bush.
“This hurts me in the sense that these are two really good guys,” Grifol said. “Not just good players. Good guys, good teammates. There’s a reason why they’re going. We didn’t meet our expectations.”
