Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Friday 5/16, 1:20 CT

The 2025 Crosstown Classic begins.

Friday notes…

• YOUNG CUBS AND HOME RUNS: Pete Crow-Armstrong is tied with Seiya Suzuki for the Cubs’ most home runs, 11. PCA is just the 22nd Cub to hit at least 10 homers in his age-23 season. Kris Bryant smacked 26, in 2015. That was one more than the previous record of 25, set by Billy Williams in 1961 and tied by Ron Santo two years later. Anthony Rizzo, with 23, was the only other Cub with at least 20. Ernie Banks hit 19 in 1954; Vic Saier, 18 in 1914; and Shawon Dunston, 17 in 1986. Bryant and Rizzo are among 10 who reached double digits this century. The others, in chronological order, were: Corey Patterson (13), in 2003, Starlin Castro (10) in 213; Jorge Soler (10) in 2015; Javier Baez (14) in 2016; Addison Russell (12) in 2017; Ian Happ (15) in 2018; Christopher Morel (16) in 2022; and PCA this year. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STREAKING: Dansby Swanson extended his on-base streak to 15 games with a single Wednesday. Over that span he’s batting .392/.466/.725 (20-for-51) with two doubles, five home runs, nine RBI, seven walks and 12 runs scored.
• WHAT A RELIEF: Brad Keller has not allowed an earned run in his last nine outings covering 10⅓ innings. In that span he’s allowed six hits and a walk (0.677 WHIP) and struck out 10.
• PLAYING ALL THE INNINGS: Pete Crow-Armstrong is one of five MLB players to have played every inning of every one of his team’s games. The others: Pete Alonso, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson and Austin Riley.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

White Sox lineup:

Cade Horton, RHP vs. Shane Smith, RHP

After a successful four-inning debut in New York last Friday (well, except for the three-run homer by Brett Baty), Cade Horton makes his first MLB start this afternoon.

Again, I would expect him to go no more than about 80 pitches. He’s obviously never faced the White Sox or anyone on their active roster — no, not even in the minor leagues. Hopefully, that will be to his advantage.

Shane Smith has made only eight more MLB starts than Horton, all of them this year. The White Sox acquired him in the Rule 5 Draft from the Brewers last December.

The Sox might have got themselves a steal. All eight of Smith’s starts have been at least good, and some have been excellent. Last time out he threw seven shutout innings against the Marlins with seven strikeouts.

He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster — no, not even in the minor leagues. So, whose advantage is it?

As always, we await developments.

Baseball Savant

Baseball Savant

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs/White Sox shared market territory) and on Chicago Sports Network (Sox announcers).

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.