Chicago Sports

To end the series, Josh Harrison was on the mound. When a position player is on the mound in 2022, it means one of two things. Either your team is up by a lot of runs or trailing by a lot of runs. The Chicago White Sox losing two of the three games to the Boston Red Sox with the way they lost, might say it all.

The White Sox have underachieved to start the season. A team that was expected to win the division, and cruise through the regular season are hovering around .500 and continuing to do so through the first two months of play.

Following the series loss, it’s time to look at this team in the grand scheme of things. Why are the White Sox unable to string together enough wins? Why are the White Sox underachieving? Lastly, how concerning is the average play of the White Sox?

White Sox haven’t been scheme proof

A few days ago, I wrote about the starting rotation and how it can carry the White Sox. The pitchers can lift the team and allow them to win games, even when the offense struggles, as it has to start the season. But what happens when the starters are having off nights?

Turns out, that Dylan Cease having a rough start was a case in point for the underlying issues. Cease has been the ace for the White Sox this season, dominating on the mound. However, against the Red Sox, the right-hander struggled, and the runs started to pile in, four in the first inning and seven in a short three-inning start.

The problem isn’t that Cease had a bad start. Even in a great year, he will have those games as he did against the New York Yankees a few starts back. However, the lineup can’t keep up. When asked to win a high-scoring game the batting order has oftentimes failed to keep up with the opponent. The White Sox have not won a game this season when allowing five runs or more.

Moreover, the White Sox haven’t adjusted to the circumstances. When the season started and the team played in the cold weather, they couldn’t win low-scoring games. Suddenly, in the warmer weather, the offense isn’t doing its part. This team has shown that it can rebound, or more accurately start to play up to its potential but a few weeks in, the roster has greatly underachieved.

Keuchel struggles (again)

The White Sox have gotten a mixed bag from Dallas Keuchel to start this season. In eight starts, Keuchel has at times looked like the ideal veteran pitcher at the end of the rotation, using off-speed pitches to force weak contact for scoreless innings. However, the inability to locate the cutter and the loss of velocity have cost him and the White Sox.

Keuchel once again struggled on the mound. The Red Sox attacked him early and often, starting with the second pitch of the game.

The Red Sox scored 16 runs in the Thursday night matchup but it started with six runs in two innings pitched by Keuchel. The team was in a hole once again and had to play from behind. The backend of the rotation has only been as good as its veteran pitcher and the recent start makes it questionable who will start in that fifth spot moving forward.

White Sox division race concerns

The White Sox trail the Minnesota Twins by 4.5 games in the American League Central Division. The deficit is concerning but also something that understandably, is easy to shrug off.

The Twins have looked different this year. Byron Buxton is playing at an MVP level and the roster is a complete one. The White Sox hovering around the .500 mark allows the Twins not only to pad their lead but possibly run away with the division by the All-Star break.

However, the average play isn’t a reason to panic, not yet at least. For starters, the Twins’ success is largely dependent on health. Buxton has been healthy while Eloy Jimenez has been out of the lineup, and the results, reflect that. In addition, it’s still early in the season 44 games to be exact. Lastly, the White Sox are still in the race, despite playing poorly. They have underachieved but once they start to pick things up, could pile on the wins.

Make sure to check out our WHITE SOX forum for the latest on the team.

Read More

Six people were wounded in shootings across Chicago Thursday.

A 17-year-old girl was hurt in a shooting Thursday afternoon in Ravenswood Manor on the North Side. The girl was traveling in a vehicle just before 5 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Francisco Avenue when someone opened fire, police said. She suffered a graze wound to the neck and was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.About a mile away, a man was inside a car when he was shot after an argument with someone outside. The man, 41, was in the 3500 block of West Collum Avenue about 6:30 p.m. when he was shot in the neck, police said. He was taken to Illinois Masonic in critical condition, police said. Hours later, a man, 31, was with a group of people outside in the 500 block of South Francisco Avenue when he was shot in the buttocks and leg, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition, officials said. Another man, 44, was in an alley in the 6000 block of South Champlain Avenue about 11:30 p.m. when he was shot in the left flank, police said. He was dropped off at St. Bernard Hospital and then transferred to Stroger Hospital where he was listed in good condition, police said.

At least two others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Thursday.

Nine people were wounded, one fatally, in shootings across Chicago Wednesday.

Read More

Gene Pesek viewed the world as if he were a camera.

“I see photography no matter where I am,” he once said in an interview with videographer Jim Quattrocki, whose career Mr. Pesek helped inspire by giving him a camera when he was 6. “I see pictures. I can be driving on [the] Dan Ryan and looking straight ahead, and I’ll see a picture.”

Mr. Pesek chronicled the beautiful and the bestial in a nearly 40-year career as a Chicago Sun-Times photographer. Some days, he’d be assigned to shoot movie stars or spring flowers. Other times, he shot crime scenes, plane crashes and political conventions.

He died May 16 at the Matteson home of his daughter Debra Wallace. He was 95.

“He could do anything,” said Rich Cahan, an author and former Sun-Times picture editor who worked with him.

He had work shown at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“He was very meticulous in his craft and the way he lit things,” said former Sun-Times photographer Bob Black. “I used to ask him, ‘How’d you do that?’ He was a master.”

To capture a memorable moment, Mr. Pesek might go up in a helicopter with the doors wide open. Or he’d board an amusement-park ride –and ride it backward to capture the look on the faces of those behind him.

One of Mr. Pesek’s proudest achievements was working on a blockbuster investigation in the late 1970s involving a team of reporters from the Sun-Times and the Better Government Association that he couldn’t talk about while he was working on it.He and fellow photographer Jim Frost shot undercover photos capturing shakedowns for bribes at the Mirage tavern, a dive bar at 731 N. Wells St., that the Sun-Times bought to catch and expose corruption.

The resulting stories by Sun-Times reporters Zay N. Smith and Pam Zekman exposed kickbacks, tax fraud and government inspectors who ignored problems in exchange for a cash-filled envelope left atop the bar.

“It was such an incredible story,” Mr. Pesek told Quattrocki. “They said, ‘We have a special assignment for you. You can take it, it may be dangerous, we don’t know. But if you don’t want it, we’re not gonna to tell you about it. If we tell you about it, you gotta take it.’ So I says, ‘Well, you know, it sounds good.’ I said: I’ll try.”

Working on the Mirage investigation, he and Frost pretended to be repairmen in an effort to avoid suspicion. They’d hide their cameras in their toolkits.

“He would put on overalls and a flannel shirt” to work at the Mirage, according to his daughter Pamela Tietz.

Frost said he cut a hole in a wall and covered it with a vent in order for him and Mr. Pesek to secretly shoot photos.

“I took it home, and I beat it all up because it was not a pretty place,” Frost said, “and a shiny vent would have been out of place.”

He said he and Mr. Pesek understood how important it was for them to document the corruption.

“The whole thing was hanging on me and Gene in a big way,” Frost said.

“The fact that Gene and Jim actually had pictures of fire inspectors taking a bribe and had photos of what was going on made the series three-dimensional,” Cahan said. “It was the key to the whole series.”

Young Gene grew up near 70th Street and South Lawndale Avenue. His father was an architect, which influenced his way of seeing the world’s lines and patterns, he said in the interview. For his graduation from Davis grade school, his dad gave him a gift: a box camera.

He went to Kelly High School, where he met Dolores “Duckie” Cook, who would become his wife of 61 years.

When he tried out for the football team at Kelly, his daughter said, “The coach told my dad he’d be much better off in the Camera Club.”

During World War II he served in the Army Air Forces in Hawaii, according to his family.

Working for the Sun-Times in an age long before GPS and step-by-step directions on smartphones, Mr. Pesek had a knack for getting around quickly, the way news photographers needed to do, Cahan said.

“He knew the city inside and out,” he said. “You had to know the fastest way to events.”

Mr. Pesek often shot cover photos for Midwest, the newspaper’s old Sunday magazine.

For Mr. Pesek, photographing celebrities was just part of the job. Not that he always knew who it was he was making pictures of. Once, he told his daughters he was going to be shooting a band named Twigs, or maybe it was Branches.

“It was Styx,” Tietz said.

Mr. Pesek retired in 1991 after more than 38 years for the Sun-Times, save for a brief period when he left to operate his own photo studio.

Mr. Pesek and his wife volunteered at the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, and they ended up taking in dogs at least five times, according to their daughter Sandra Vail.

Rocky the beagle was his special dog, though.

“If my dad had coffee cake,” Tietz said, “Rocky had coffee cake.”

Once, he and his wife rescued a sparrow that had fallen from a nest. They fed it with an eyedropper. When they tried to set it free, it kept flying back to them. So they kept it and named it Chicken. The bird lived for five years and would perch on Dolores Pesek’s shoulder while she cooked dinner.

They enjoyed relaxing together.

“They’d sit outside and drink Hilty Diltys,” a cocktail, their former neighbor Rosemary Quattrocki said.

Mr. Pesek’s wife died in 2010. In addition to his daughters Debra, Sandra and Pamela, he is survived by eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Mr. Pesek preferred to write notes on paper plates rather than on paper. So, at his funeral service on Tuesday, his daughters placed paper plates in his casket bearing messages they’d written, saying they loved him.

Read More

The idea for “Fire Island,” written by and starring former Chicagoan Joel Kim Booster and debuting June 3 on Hulu, started “as a threat,” Booster says.

A decade or so ago, Booster and Bowen Yang (pre-“Saturday Night Live”) took their first trip to Fire Island–a popular summer tourist destination for the LGBTQ community in New York. Think Door County, but gay.

Booster, a writer and performer whose credits include “Sunnyside,” “Shrill,” “Big Mouth” and his own Comedy Central stand-up half hour, was reading Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” one day on the beach and noted just how much the book tracked with his Fire Island experience.

“Specifically, the ways in which people communicate across class lines,” Booster says. “I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I wrote a gay version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ set on Fire Island?’ And everyone booed and threw things at me.”

In 2018, Booster’s agent encouraged him to adapt an essay he wrote for Penguin Random House, titled ” ‘Pride and Prejudice’ on Fire Island,” into a script. What began as a TV pilot for the erstwhile content platform Quibi turned into a feature-length film after being purchased by Searchlight Pictures.

The plot of “Fire Island” begins as not too far-flung a concept for a romantic comedy before diving into Shakespearean terrain. Booster and Yang play fictionalized versions of themselves — best friends embarking, with a small entourage, on their annual Fire Island vacation getaway. The pair attempt to ingratiate themselves with the Fire Island elite for the sake of finding love and making lasting memories. The cast includes other up-and-coming names in comedy (Matt Rogers, Torian Miller) in addition to the longtime comedy luminary Margaret Cho.

Director Andrew Ahn, whose resume includes the independent features “Spa Night” and “Driveways” and an episode of the FX docuseries “Pride,” received the script for “Fire Island” a year into the pandemic, a time he admits was pretty isolating. “Reading something like Joel’s script, that celebrates queer Asian American friendship, was so exciting to me,” he says. “I hadn’t gone out to a club to dance, drink and be stupid with my friends [in so long, at that point], and I loved being able to revel in that within Joel’s script.”

“It was great to work with another queer Asian American creative,” Ahn adds. “And what I love about our collaboration is that, yes, like, we share a lot of things, but we also have very different perspectives on things. I think that’s indicative of how diverse even our intersectional identity is.”

Booster’s script certainly contains a plethora of party scenes, but touches on Fire Island’s power as a haven for the kind of queer-friendly debauchery not often seen on the mainland.

“[There] is a tangible energy [on Fire Island] of everything it meant to gay men a century ago versus what it means to us now,” Booster says. “You don’t realize the weight you carry around with you in the normal world until you’re in a place like Fire Island where it’s suddenly lifted and you’re free to be as gay as you want to be with your friends. Yes, there’s [some] toxicity there, but if you go with the right people, you can overcome that and experience something really transformative.”

Booster’s own transformation was accelerated by Chicago. In addition to hanging out at both Montrose and Hollywood beaches — mini versions of Fire Island, he says — he spent two years grinding shows as a stand-up comic and actor.

He says his favorite show to do in Chicago was Entertaining Julia, a weekly showcase at Town Hall Pub in Boystown. Booster loved the unpredictable nature of the show, which routinely hosted local comics but was home to the occasional celebrity drop-in, including Robin Williams.

“Chicago is an incredible incubator for any sort of risks, especially in the performing arts,” says Booster, whose stand-up special “Psychosexual” premieres June 21 on Netflix. “I was able to do so many different things, wear so many different hats and was afforded the space to perform, write and do comedy and theater — and was never asked to pick a lane.”

It’s the kind of city that can nurture the idea to, say, write a gay rom-com version of “Pride and Prejudice” set on Fire Island — and encourage someone like Booster to make good on his threat.

Read More

It’s never good when it feels like you’re out of a game before the sun goes down.

But that seemed to be the case Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field when left-hander Dallas Keuchel allowed three runs to the Red Sox in each of the first two innings.

Keuchel, one of three $18 million players at the top of the Sox payroll this season with Jose Abreu and Yasmani Grandal but the weakest link in the starting rotation, gave up six runs on seven hits including two homers. With the score 6-0, Keuchel was booed on an otherwise beautiful night for baseball.

Keuchel’s outing, which raised his ERA to 7.88, was short and loaded with crooked numbers, including four strikeouts and two walks. Andrew Vaughn did all he could to repair the damage done against Keuchel with a career-high five RBI on bases-clearing double in the third and two-run homer in the fifth against Michael Wacha.

But a night after climbing over the .500 mark behind a gritty performance by right-hander Lucas Giolito and homer by Jake Burger, Keuchel put the Sox in a deep-six hole, allowing Kike Hernandez’ second leadoff homer of the series before giving up four more hits producing two more runs in the first.

Keuchel left the bases loaded by striking out ninth-place hitter Christian Arroyo to end the first, but still heard it from a restless crowd. In the second, Trevor Story barely cleared left fielder AJ Pollock’s leaping attempt at the left field fence, dropping his ninth homer of the season into the bullpen and dropping a load of gloom and doom on the crowd of 24,896, the largest of the three-game series.

Whether the Sox carry on with Keuchel, a former Cy Young winner who hasn’t pitched well since 2020, in the rotation for much longer bears watching. He’s in the last year of a three-year, $55 million contract that includes a vesting option for 2023 if he pitches 160 innings.

The Sox starting five is otherwise in good shape with Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Johnny Cueto with Vince Velasquez providing depth and Lance Lynn expected back in two or three weeks.

On May 8, Keuchel held the Red Sox to two runs over six innings at Fenway Park, then pitched five scoreless innings against the Yankees six days later in Chicago. Keuchel said he was disappointed manager Tony La Russa pulled him after five.

“We the team were mostly appreciative and excited about the five innings he pitched,” La Russa said. “His history since I’ve been here, in the sixth inning has been not good.”

In his next and most recent start, Keuchel gave up six runs in four innings Saturday in the Josh Donaldson/Tim Anderson game at Yankee Stadium.

And then Thursday night.

Sox halved the deficit to 6-3 on Vaughn’s double after Leury Garcia, Adam Engel and Tim Anderson singled in succession with no outs. Anderson raced home from first on Vaughn’s liner in the right field corner.

Jose Ruiz walked Story leading off the fifth, and Story stole second and scored on Alex Verdugo’s double to make it 7-3. Vaughn lifted his fifth homer into the left field seats with Adam Engel (single) on first.

The Red Sox scored two against lefty Tanner Banks in the seventh to take a 9-5 lead.

The Sox played without Yoan Moncada in the starting lineup. Batting .136/.177/.254 in 14 games after missing the first 27 games of the season with an oblique strain and dealing with leg soreness, La Russa planned to give him two days off with Friday’s off day to be well for the Cubs this weekend.

“He’s a little sore today in spots,” La Russa said.

“I’m enthusiastic about him having a big finish to the second half of the season or the start of next month.”

Read More

While some might be tempted to dismiss jukebox musicals as bad — a genre that frequently receives (often legitimately) scorn for haphazardly stringing together songs in lieu of a real plot –in the case of “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” they would be remiss. The show is simply a gem; a high-energy crowd-pleaser delivered by the hardest-working cast anywhere.

Now playing at the Cadillac Theater, the musical is two-and-one-half-hours of top-notch vocals, dancing and theatrics — including drop-splits and mic-stand tricks — as well as some of the most iconic music ever put to vinyl.

You have to give it to the Temptations –every single song is a banger, and I found myself struggling not to croon along with the cast. However, quite a few folks in the audience at Wednesday’s opening night performance did not resist that urge, so be forewarned. The show is part musical, part rock concert, and part audience sing-along. Sad sacks beware! Your spirits will be lifted!

With a book written by Dominique Morisseau, based on the memoir “The Temptations,” by Otis Williams (one of the original members), the story is well-constructed and personal, narrated by triple-threat Marcus Paul James, who plays an eminently likable and earnest Williams.

We follow Williams from his rough-and-tumble days as a youth, through a brief stint in jail that scares him straight, to his embrace of music as a way out of a life of crime and poverty, to his meteoric rise to stardom with one of the most legendary groups to ever grace the stage. Told with an enjoyably corny tone, the story is funny and light, yet still takes moments to acknowledge the hard truths of the era, including the struggles of the civil rights movement, and the inadequacy that musicians felt while watching the Freedom Riders fight for justice, leaving them to wonder if making music was truly enough to help the cause.

If “Ain’t Too Proud” has a flaw, it’s the pace of the storytelling, which rushes at a chaotic speed, with scenes (and blazers) transitioning in and out so quickly that at times it has the unsteady energy of a sketch comedy show.

While the sense of urgency keeps the audience invested and viscerally sharing the anxiety of the characters as they are overwhelmed by fame, the pace sells out some moments through harsh edits. For example, a welcome cameo of The Supremes (an amazing Deri’Andra Tucker, Traci Elaine Lee and Shayla Brielle G) features unsatisfying edited versions of their hit songs; and a scene honoring the untimely loss of a group member awkwardly truncates a beloved ballad, robbing the moment of its full potential. Fortunately, the consistently amazing orchestra, led by music director Jonathan “Smitti” Smith, keeps the entire show rocking so hard, you don’t have time to think about anything other than how much fun you are having.

For those of us who are old enough to have grown up listening to the music, but young enough to not remember the behind-the-scenes details, the show helps chronicle the legendary contributions of some of the titans of Motown including producer Berry Gordy, played by Michael Andreaus, and Smokey Robinson, played by a hilarious Lawrence Dandridge.

Like any good band story, there’s a fair amount of drama, and members rotate in and out, seduced by fame, women, or drugs — and the ensemble’s take on the requisite drug scene is truly hilarious. The rotating cast gives each of the Temptations a chance to shine individually, while simultaneously participating in the nonstop choreography.

Every single performer in this show is a topnotch singer-dancer. There are too many showstopper numbers to name, but some of the best included “I Can’t Get Next To You” and “Just My Imagination.” Standouts among a cast of standouts include Harrell Holmes Jr, who steals the show with his portrayal of the talented and troubled diva, Melvin Franklin. Jalen Harris delivers not only the high notes but high drama as Eddie Kendricks, and Harris Matthews as the spirited Dennis Edwards, who absolutely delivers on the iconic hit “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.”

At the end of the day, “Ain’t Too Proud” is a show about brotherhood, the love of music, and the sacrifices one must make to achieve greatness.

I ain’t too proud to say that I loved this show!

Read More

CINCINNATI – The Cubs lineup against the Reds on Thursday edged closer to full strength, as catcher Willson Contreras and shortstop Nico Hoerner rejoined the starting cast.

For both, their return to action had come the night before, pinch hitting in the ninth inning of the Cubs’ 4-3 loss Thursday. With two runners on, they each made contact. Contreras’ deep line drive to center field was caught, but Hoerner cut the Reds’ lead to one run with an RBI single.

Contreras had missed three games with hamstring tightness, and Hoerner (right ankle sprain) was returning from nearly two weeks on the injured list.

“I was able to be swinging pretty soon afterwards, that wasn’t really a concern on the rehab side,” Hoerner said before Wednesday’s game. “So, should be good on that end. But just going back to day-by-day stuff. It’s not making up for lost time or anything of that mentality. Just joining back in, doing whatever I can and continuing some good energy that we’ve created lately.”

On Thursday, Hoerner and Contreras both hit solo homers.

The Cubs have been navigating a spike of injuries, overlapping with several COVID-19 related IL moves, in recent weeks. They had 13 players on the IL Thursday. Even Hoerner’s activation Wednesday coincided with catcher Yan Gomes going on the 10-day IL with a left oblique strain.

Several players, however, are approaching a return. Cubs second baseman Nick Madrigal (low back strain) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa on Saturday.

Cubs pitchers Alec Mills (right quadriceps strain) and Sean Newcomb (left ankle sprain) are both scheduled to make rehab appearances on Friday. It will be Newcomb’s second rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa and Mills’ second since a setback interrupted his rehab assignment for a month.

The Cubs players who began the season on the 60-day IL – including Mills, who the Cubs transferred from the 10-day IL last week – will become eligible to return in less than two weeks.

Waiting for Kilian

Right-hander Caleb Kilian, the Cubs’ top pitching prospect, is not in the conversation to start in either of the Cubs’ doubleheaders next week, manager David Ross said on Thursday.

“It just looks like real big-league stuff, I know he’s having a great season, stuff’s trending up, the velocity is moving up, there’s just a lot of good things to like about him,” Ross said. “… I’m sure we’ll see him sooner rather than later.”

Ross did not elaborate on why he didn’t expect “sooner” to be as soon as next week.

The Cubs will need to add Kilian to the 40-man roster by the end of the year to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

The Cubs are in the middle of a 40-man roster crunch, which is likely part of the equation. In addition to having every spot filled, in order to bring back outfielders Jason Heyward and Michael Hermosillo, who are on the IL without injury designation (usually COVID-19 related), the Cubs will have to clear room on the 40-man roster.

Read More

CINCINNATI — Rookie Christopher Morel tracked a long fly ball off the bat of former Cub Albert Almora Jr. to the warning track. The young center fielder leapt and snagged the ball out of the air a step and a half before the wall, preventing further damage in a game that had already spun out of control for the Cubs on Thursday.

Since Morel made his MLB debut last week, he’s played four different defensive positions: third base, second, shortstop and center field. He’d checked off all four in his first five major-league starts, becoming the first Cub to start at that many different positions in so few opportunities since 1904 (Solly Hoffman).

“That’s so cool,” Cubs shortstop Nico Hoerner said this week. “And those aren’t easy positions either. It’s not a first base, left field, DH type of thing, he’s all over the place. And he’s done a great job. He’s going to be able to do the spectacular stuff as well as anyone and continues to do the basic parts of the game well.”

Morel started in center field in the Cubs’ 20-5 loss Tuesday, a pummeling even drearier for the Cubs as the weather. Cubs manager David Ross was ejected for the second day in a row, this time after catcher Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch. The Cubs hadn’t allowed 20-plus runs in a game since 1999.

Now that Hoerner is back from the injured list, Ross anticipates Morel playing more outfield.

“He’s really got a lot of things to like,” Ross said. “He can run, obviously the arm, to have a guy who can play short, second, third and center, all three outfield positions. … You can put him anywhere, real power, still getting his feet wet at this level, and it’s just nice to see him feel comfortable every single day.”

Now, consider the fact that Morel added outfield to his list of positions only last year. Before then, he’d played one game in the outfield professionally, in Single-A South Bend in 2019.

Morel has been in big-league spring training camp with the Cubs the past two years. He said that last year, Ross commented on the speedy infielder running around the outfield to shag fly balls during batting practice.

Morel recounted: “I said, ‘I’ve never played outfield. If you need me in the outfield, I’m going to be ready.'”

Later, he found out that he’d primarily be playing outfield that season.

A year later, he’s playing the position in the major leagues.

Playing long fly balls off an ivy-covered brick wall wasn’t something Christopher Morel had done before last week. But when he got the chance at Wrigley Field, playing center field against the Diamondbacks in his first week in the majors, he made it look like he’d done it dozens of times before.

Morel was just going by feel, he said.

The Cubs’ roster has done plenty of shifting since Morel’s debut — when he homered in his first major-league at-bat. But Morel, who Ross described as a “one-man-bench-type player” has stayed.

“He was always wiry and athletic, but you look at him now, he’s put on some real strength,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said of Morel’s development the past couple years. “The ball just comes off the bat hot now. The arm strength has always been there, the versatility has been there, but I just think that he’s stronger now. And I think that that makes a huge difference as you play in the upper levels.”

Through 32 at-bats, Morel is batting .313, with a .968 OPS.

When the present isn’t so cheery for Cubs fans, like during a blowout to the cellar-dwelling Reds, maybe Morel can also offer hope for the future.

Read More

White Sox right-handed reliever Joe Kelly landed on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a with a strained left hamstring. Left-hander Tanner Banks was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take Kelly’s place in the bullpen.

Banks, who owns a 3.00 ERA over 18 innings covering 11 appearances, was optioned to Charlotte when lefty Aaron Bummer returned from the IL Sunday. Banks, 30, became a major leaguer for the first time when he made the Opening Day roster.

Kelly exited Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over the Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field after striking out Franchy Cordero and Trevor Story. After his final pitch, he winced and walked off thefield with assistant trainer Josh Fallin.

“Nobody said it would be easy,” manager Tony La Russa said after the game after the latest Sox injury. “We’ve gone through this before.”

Kelly, 32, signed to a two-year, $17 million contract as a free agent in March. HE was pitching in his seventh game after starting the season on the injured list with a right biceps nerve injury, an issue the Sox were aware of when he was signed.

He had allowed six runs over five innings with the Sox.

Read More

CINCINNATI – The Cubs lineup against the Reds on Thursday edged closer to full strength, as catcher Willson Contreras and shortstop Nico Hoerner rejoined the starting cast.

For both, their return to action had come the night before, pinch hitting in the ninth inning of the Cubs’ 4-3 loss Thursday. With two runners on, they each made contact. Contreras’ deep line drive to center field was caught, but Hoerner cut the Reds’ lead to one run with an RBI single.

Contreras had missed three games with hamstring tightness, and Hoerner (right ankle sprain) was returning from nearly two weeks on the injured list.

“I was able to be swinging pretty soon afterwards, that wasn’t really a concern on the rehab side,” Hoerner said before Wednesday’s game. “So, should be good on that end. But just going back to day-by-day stuff. It’s not making up for lost time or anything of that mentality. Just joining back in, doing whatever I can and continuing some good energy that we’ve created lately.”

On Thursday, Hoerner and Contreras both hit solo homers.

The Cubs have been navigating a spike of injuries, overlapping with several COVID-19 related IL moves, in recent weeks. They had 13 players on the IL Thursday. Even Hoerner’s activation Wednesday coincided with catcher Yan Gomes going on the 10-day IL with a left oblique strain.

Several players, however, are approaching a return. Cubs second baseman Nick Madrigal (low back strain) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa on Saturday.

Cubs pitchers Alec Mills (right quadriceps strain) and Sean Newcomb (left ankle sprain) are both scheduled to make rehab appearances on Friday. It will be Newcomb’s second rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa and Mills’ second since a setback interrupted his rehab assignment for a month.

The Cubs players who began the season on the 60-day IL – including Mills, who the Cubs transferred from the 10-day IL last week – will become eligible to return in less than two weeks.

Waiting for Kilian

Right-hander Caleb Kilian, the Cubs’ top pitching prospect, is not in the conversation to start in either of the Cubs’ doubleheaders next week, manager David Ross said on Thursday.

“It just looks like real big-league stuff, I know he’s having a great season, stuff’s trending up, the velocity is moving up, there’s just a lot of good things to like about him,” Ross said. “… I’m sure we’ll see him sooner rather than later.”

Ross did not elaborate on why he didn’t expect “sooner” to be as soon as next week.

The Cubs will need to add Kilian to the 40-man roster by the end of the year to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

The Cubs are in the middle of a 40-man roster crunch, which is likely part of the equation. In addition to having every spot filled, in order to bring back outfielders Jason Heyward and Michael Hermosillo, who are on the IL without injury designation (usually COVID-19 related), the Cubs will have to clear room on the 40-man roster.

Read More