CHICAGO – On this Memorial Day weekend, the two professional sports teams in the “Windy City” will meet for the second and final time in the 2022 MLB regular season.
After two games at a chilly Wrigley Field earlier in the month, the Cubs and White Sox will meet at a warmer Guaranteed Rate Field for a two-game series that starts on Saturday. Before that, each team has a rare regular season Friday off, and it might be a time for the teams to shake off what happened on Thursday.
It’s safe to say that each team is not exactly heading into the City Series at the moment.
The Cubs had the worst of it during a miserable afternoon game in Cincinnati where they sat through a rain delay before the Reds really made it pour.
After taking a 3-0 lead early, the Cubs allowed ten runs in the second and third inning before the hosts really got going. They’d score ten more runs between the fifth and the eighth inning while pounding out 20 total hits in a 20-5 romp over the visitors to finish the four-game series in a tie.
It was the first time the Cubs have allowed 20 runs since July 3, 1999, when they surrendered 21 in a loss to the Phillies at Veterans Stadium.
For the second time in three days, the White Sox were on the wrong end of a lopsided result against the Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. Dallas Keuchel allowed six runs in two innings as Boston built their lead, but the hosts would rally to get it down to two on an Andrew Vaughn two-run homer in the fifth.
The Red Sox would then break it open in the later innings as they got nine runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth to pull away. This came just two days after Boston scored 17 runs on the White Sox, which was the most they’d allowed since the 2017 season.
As for the City Series itself, the White Sox have already clinched the “Crosstown Cup” with a sweep of the Cubs earlier in the month since they won the season series against the north siders in 2021. Tony La Russa’s team enters with an even 22-22 record, sitting 4 1/2 games behind the Twins for first in the AL Central.
Meanwhile, the Cubs continue to sit well below .500 at 18-26, 10 1/2 games behind the Brewers for first in the NL Central. Game 1 is scheduled for 7:15 PM on Saturday with the second on Sunday at 1:10 PM.