The White Sox headed into the final game of the season series against the Cubs today 4-1 after last night’s beating. Dylan Cease battled fellow right-hander Kyle Hendricks in this afternoon’s rubber match. Cease started out strong with a 1-2-3 first inning on a groundout and 2 strikeouts. After giving up a walk to start the 2nd, Dylan induced a ground ball from Duffy to get the double play. In the top of the 4th, Frank Schwindel battled back from down 0-2 to hit a solo home run for the Cubs’ first run. He was able to get out of the labor-intensive inning on 28 pitches after giving up a walk and single with his 3rd strikeout of the inning. Cease again struck out the side in the 5th for his 7th-9th strikeouts. He’d get two more in the sixth inning, bringing his game total to 11.
Ryan Tepera came in for the 7th to relieve Cease. He got through the inning in 1-2-3 fashion. Kopech was tagged for the 8th and allowed a double while getting out of it without a run. Liam Hendriks took the mound in the 9th to get some work in during the blowout. He struck out 2 in a 1-2-3 9th inning.
On the offense, Luis Robert got the scoring started with a solo home run in the first inning. With 2 outs in the 2nd inning, Vaughn singled on a hard line drive and was followed up by a knock into the home bullpen from Brian Goodwin to make it 3-0 Good Guys. In the bottom of the 5th, Kyle Hendricks lost his control. He walked 2 and hit Luis to bring up Jose Abreu with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Abreu obliterated a ball to dead center for a ground-rule double. Immediately after that, Eloy Jimenez came up to hit a 3-run homer to right field to kick Hendricks out of the game. The offense continued to pour it on off of reliever Adam Morgan with Grandal’s 2-run homer to cap off a 7-run inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Luis Robert hit one into the left-field bleachers for his 2nd home run of the game. The offense loaded the bases on 2 walks and a single but only came away with 1 run on a groundout in the seventh inning.
All told, the White Sox end up big winners today. They improve to 76-56 on the season.
W: Dylan Cease (11-6) | L: Kyle Hendricks (14-6)
Savant Leaders
Notable Performances
Dylan Cease: 6 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 11 K
Cease had a great start today, the best of the staff this weekend. He had a streak of 7 strikeouts spanning the 4th to 6th innings. While he battled some control issues, he was very effective with a high strikeout to walk ratio. He finished the game with 108 pitches and left to a standing ovation.
Jose Abreu: 2-for-3, R, 2 RBI, 2B
Abreu continued his scorching August at the plate with 2 extra-base hits. The double gave him 101 RBI on the season, surpassing the 100 mark for the 6th time in his career.
Luis Robert: 2-for-3, 3 R, 3 RBI, HBP, 2 HR
Luis was a big part of the offensive onslaught today, racking up 2 home runs and reaching base a 3rd time on a hit-by-pitch.
Other Highlights
Next Game
The White Sox have an off day tomorrow for some much-needed rest. The team will take on the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday at home. Lucas Giolito will take the mound at 7:10 pm CT on NBC Sports Chicago looking to pick up his 10th win of the season.
