Crosstown Showdown: White Sox ready to steal every headline that isn’t bolted downSteve Greenbergon August 1, 2021 at 10:14 pm

Sunday afternoon kind of said it all, didn’t it?

At Nationals Park in Washington, Yadiel Hernandez homered off reliever Manuel Rodriguez in the ninth inning to beat the Cubs 6-5 and end a series filled with little-known baseball players doing little-viewed and even-less-talked-about baseball things.

Meanwhile, at Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox were throwing their Craig Kimbrel-Liam Hendriks late-inning one-two punch at the Indians, enabling Brian Goodwin to stride to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and put a ball over the wall for a 2-1 walk-off. Tense, urgent, exciting — every pitch. Goodwin’s Andersonesque bat flip seemed to be for himself, for his team and for everyone who has that 2005 feeling all over again.

One team: all but forgotten.

The other: Ready to steal every headline that isn’t bolted down.

So what’ll it look like later this week at Wrigley Field when the Sox and Cubs finally meet head-to-head for the first time this season?

Will it be a total Sox takeover in the stands? One imagines a raucous family reunion spilling into the solemn space of an outdoor funeral.

How sad and empty will all the Cubs fans clad in Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez jerseys feel? Wait, we don’t need to guess at that one — the answer is very much so.

One team: The party is over.

The other: The party is just getting started.

Here’s what’s happening:

Netherlands v United States: Women's Football Quarterfinal - Olympics: Day 7
Megan Rapinoe and Alyssa Naeher celebrate a win against the Netherlands.
Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

MON 2

Olympic women’s soccer: U.S. vs. Canada (3 a.m., USA, 7 p.m., Ch. 5)

Canada — which won bronze at the 2012 and 2016 Games — is desperate to knock off No. 1 in this semifinal and still has Christine Sinclair, who has scored more international goals than any woman or man in the sport’s history.

Olympic men’s basketball: U.S. vs. Spain (11:40 p.m., Peacock)

The top two teams in the world rankings meet again in a knockout quarterfinal, which reminds us: Do the Gasol brothers just not realize how old they’ve gotten?

TUE 3

Royals at White Sox (7:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

A second straight start against the Royals? Dylan Cease will take it. Then again, who wouldn’t?

WED 4

Olympic track & field (5 a.m., Peacock, 7 p.m., Ch. 5)

Finals include the 200, 800 and triple jump on the men’s side. What do those triple jumpers have that we don’t, anyway?

New York City at Fire (7 p.m., Ch. 9)

Fifteen games in, NYC had the best goals differential — plus-14 — in the league. The Fire? Hey, let’s not get bogged down in the details.

THU 5

Cubs at Rockies (2:10 p.m., Marquee)

Jake Arrieta is 5-10 with a 6.20 ERA and zero quality starts in his last 11 outings. Other than that, the man is locked in.

Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp
The Steelers have a potentially great one in Harris.
Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Hall of Fame Game: Cowboys vs. Steelers (7 p.m., Fox-32)

Football arrives, folks. Hallelujah, God bless America and just wait until the Yinzers get a load of rookie running back Najee Harris.

Olympic women’s soccer: gold-medal game (9 p.m., USA)

Don’t forget, the mighty Americans failed to medal in 2016 in Rio.

FRI

Olympic track & field (5 a.m., Peacock, 7 p.m., Ch. 5)

Finals include the men’s and women’s 4×100 relays — and a real chance for the Japanese men, who took silver in this event in Rio, to become national heroes.

White Sox at Cubs (1:20 p.m., Marquee, NBCSCH)

Anticlimactic? Not for the Sox and their gung-ho fans, who have no tears to give for the Cubs.

Olympic men’s basketball: gold-medal game (9:30 p.m., Ch. 5, Peacock)

Will a bunch of NBA dudes take the ball, overwhelm a vastly inferior foe and win gold for the fourth Olympics in a row? Gosh, we make it sound so easy.

SAT 31

Olympic men’s soccer: gold-medal game (6:30 a.m., NBCSN)

It’s the Mexico-Brazil winner against the Japan-Spain winner. Your snooty, scarf-clad neighbor and his fellow soccer snobs would love to see Brazil-Spain, but Mexico-Japan would be so much cooler.

Cincinnati Reds v New York Mets
Baez is blending in beautifully with his new team.
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Mets at Phillies (3:05 p.m., FS1)

Don’t miss a chance to check out the Mets’ Javy Baez, who, according to our inside sources, has a chance to be a pretty dang decent second baseman someday.

Olympic women’s basketball: gold-medal game (9:30 p.m., Ch. 5)

A seventh straight gold for the U.S. women? It should be automatic, but that’s easy for us to say.

SUN 2

Olympic closing ceremony (6 a.m., Peacock, 7 p.m., Ch. 5)

Let’s just get to the finish line already so Tokyo — and all of Japan — can finally focus on its massive COVID-19 challenges in earnest. Not that we’re not up to our elbows in problems in this country.

Orlando at Red Stars (5 p.m., Paramount+)

Post-Olympics, the Red Stars will aim to play themselves off the postseason bubble and into the thick of the championship hunt.

White Sox at Cubs (6:08 p.m., Ch. 7)

You know what? These fan bases actually have more in common than meets the eye. For example, neither side of town can wait for the regular season to be over.

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