The White Sox won their two games in Wrigley Field this year so far, but the offensive explosion doesn’t count because they were too reliant on the home run ball. The White Sox scored all seven runs tonight on long balls after scoring all ten runs last night on bombs. Unfortunately that doesn’t really matter in the standings despite how some people feel about homer dependent teams. The Cubs have caught the White Sox at a time when the offense is red-hot and just hitting homers up and down the lineup. Hopefully the Cubs can put a stop to it tomorrow.

WPA CHART

 The White Sox homer party started early again. Edwin Encarnacion doubled to lead off the second against Hendricks. Luis Roberts then hit his second home run of the series to give the White Sox the 2-0 lead. Unlike last night, the Cubs starter was able to keep the White Sox out of the stands for a few innings and give the lineup a chance to get back into the ballgame.

White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez worked around a leadoff walk in the first inning, but wasn’t able to do the same in the second inning. Lopez plunked Willson Contreras to start the frame and then walked Jason Heyward. Victor Caratini doubled to drive in the pair to tie the game. Lopez finished the inning without allowing the Cubs to take a lead.

Gio Gonzalez took over with one out in the fourth inning. The Cubs put runners on in each inning that Gonzalez pitched from the fourth through the seventh inning, but a couple of double plays meant that the Cubs could do little against the White Sox pitchers.

Jose Abreu put the White Sox ahead with a leadoff blast in the sixth inning. Hendricks would retire the next batter, but he was pulled before getting a chance to earn a quality start. Ryan Tepera cleaned up the rest of the sixth. Tepera struggled to start the seventh giving up back to back singles, but a double play allowed him to keep the scoreline at 3-2 White Sox.

A rare sight was Rowan Wick struggling in the eighth inning. Yasmani Grandal walked to start the inning and Jose Abreu went deep for the second time to build a 5-2 lead. Casey Sadler had to take over and a wild pitch combined with a walk raised our collective blood pressure but not the White Sox lead.

The Cubs were able to scratch a run across against new White Sox hurler Evan Marshall. Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber and Willson Contreras all singled to make it a 5-3 lead, but the White Sox were not done mashing. Yasmani Grandal and Jose Abreu hit back to back jacks with two outs.

The 7-3 lead was threatened by a tease rally against Alex Colome. Nico Hoerner drew a leadoff walk and Jason Kipnis hit a double that he probably shouldn’t have tried for in the first place given the situation. He was nearly thrown out, but alls well that ends well. Colome yielded a run on Ian Happ’s one out groundout. Anthony Rizzo struck it well but right at Robert to end the game.

Random Reference

I think it was between the fourth and fifth home run Jose Abreu has hit in the past two games that had me thinking of this. It wasn’t just Abreu doing the damage, but it is getting old watching him trot around the bases.