The Cubs and White Sox kicked off their series at Wrigley on a warm and sunny Friday afternoon. The road team took an early advantage, but the North Siders roared back thanks to their dynamic young center fielder to win in blowout fashion.
Cade Horton made his first career MLB start and gave up a two-run homer to Miguel Vargas in the opening inning to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. There was controversy right before the homer when Chase Meidroth was initially thrown out trying to steal second, but the umpire ruled Nico Hoerner illegally blocked the base with his foot and the runner was called safe.
The Cubs then erupted for six runs against Shane Smith in the bottom of the 2nd to go ahead for good. Moisés Ballesteros hit a ground ball to first with men on second and third, and Michael Busch made a terrific slide to beat the throw home. Hoerner then grounded to third and catcher Matt Thaiss dropped an easy throw to the plate for an error that allowed the tying run to score.
Pete Crow-Armstrong struck the big blow when he lifted a moonshot three-run homer down the right field line to put the home team ahead 5-2. Kyle Tucker tripled and Seiya Suzuki doubled him in to complete the scoring in the big inning.
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Vargas hit a second homer in the 3rd inning, and that would be the last run the White Sox scored. Crow-Armstrong had an RBI single on a pop-up and Suzuki hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-3 in the 6th.
PCA singled home two more in the 7th to get up to a whopping six RBI on Friday. The Cubs scored three runs in the 8th, including one on Ballesteros’s first career hit, to coast to a 13-3 victory. (Box score)
Key Moment
The home run by Crow-Armstrong blew the game open and the White Sox never recovered from it.
Why the Cubs Won
The hitters took advantage of the favorable conditions with the wind blowing out and the pitching handled a very weak Sox with no major issues.
Stats That Matter
- Horton paid for a couple of spinning sliders up in the zone but did pretty well: 5 IP, 3 R, 7 H, 2 K, 0 BB.
- After cooling for a bit, PCA is back with a vengeance: 4-for-5, HR, 2 R, 6 RBI.
- Ballesteros got his first hit and drove in two runs.
Bottom Line
The crazy thing is Crow-Armstrong is barely a full year into his career and he’s already at least the second-best player on the roster. If he can hit 30 home runs a season, he’s going to be an MVP candidate every single year. The Cubs could have seen things get away from them when they got off to a shaky start Friday, but they just kept grinding to beat up on a weaker opponent.
On Deck
Game two of the series is Saturday afternoon at 1:20pm CT. Matthew Boyd takes the hill against Sean Burke in a contest airing on Marquee with radio coverage on 670 The Score.
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