White Sox can't overcome flurry of mistakes in loss to Cubs
This isn't the same Chicago Cubs team that averaged 94 losses over the last four seasons.
It's a Cubs team that is on the rise — and on a serious roll.
As the Chicago White Sox have learned the past two games, you have to limit the mistakes to beat the Cubs.
On Friday, starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija had location problems, and his 3 home runs allowed inflicted serious damage on the Sox in a 6-5 loss.
The Cubs actually made a few fielding miscues in Saturday night's rematch at sold-out U.S. Cellular Field, but the White Sox failed to take full advantage.
As the game progressed, the Sox started making one mistake after another, and they paid another heavy price in a 6-3 defeat.
“I think you look at the whole game, and they made some mistakes we didn't capitalize on and we made some mistakes and they capitalized on them,” manager Robin Ventura said. “They put some stuff in play and they scored when we made some mistakes.”
The White Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after cashing in on Cubs starter Jake Arrieta's error on a routine throw to first base.
But they failed to capitalize on an error by third baseman Kris Bryant in the third inning, which put runners on the corners with one out. Arrieta struck out Carlos Sanchez and Tyler Flowers to escape trouble.
From there, the White Sox started slopping it up and the Cubs went on to win their ninth straight game.
“Tough baseball game on both sides,” center fielder Adam Eaton said. “It was a game of more mistakes than we wanted to give each other. They took more advantage than we did.”
In the fifth inning, Addison Russell doubled with two outs, and Ventura had starter Jose Quintana intentionally walk Dexter Fowler to get to hot-hitting rookie Kyle Schwarber.
The strategy backfired as Schwarber drilled a run-scoring single to right field.
“I tried to go in,” Quintana said. “It was bad pitch and I have to be better on that pitch. I need the ball to run more in and that's what happens when you don't throw it where you want.”
Russell scored on Schwarber's hit, but Avisail Garcia made a strong throw to the plate. Flowers appeared to be out of position and slow to make the tag.
“Tweener hop,” Flowers said. “You've either got to charge it and pick the short hop and then dive or back it up and try and get the tweener hop and be close to the plate. I don't know, it was pretty close.”
The Cubs upped their lead to 3-1 in the sixth inning when Eaton lost Anthony Rizzo's flyball in the lights.
Rizzo was credited with a double, and he scored on Jorge Soler's single to left field. Melky Cabrera was charged with an error on a high throw home that allowed Soler to advance to second base, and Quintana gets a mental error for watching the throw rather than backing up home plate.
“It was a tough play,” Eaton said of the failed catch. “When it went up, I was trying to communicate to everyone that I can't see the ball. As scary as it is, you don't see it until it hits the lights. At that moment in time, I saw the ball. I didn't hear Melky and I didn't really know where he was, so the center fielder in me said I need to catch the ball here.”
In the seventh inning, the Cubs increased their lead to 6-2 thanks to a throwing error by shortstop Alexei Ramirez.
“We've been playing much better defense,” Ventura said. “You just put it behind you and go on from there. You know the reason why you're in a tough spot tonight.”
Ventura was ejected in the seventh inning after arguing with home-plate umpire Joe West.
“Anytime you feel like your guys are getting shortchanged on the calls going back and forth, for me that's where it started,” Ventura said.