CHICAGO – Once again, the “Crosstown Cup” is headed to the south side as the White Sox, once again, brought out the brooms at Wrigley Field.
Thanks to timely offense and strong late bullpen work, the south siders beat the Cubs 4-3 on Wednesday night to sweep the Cubs in their quick two-game series at Wrigley Field.
It’s the second-straight year that Tony La Russa’s team has swept their crosstown rival at the Friendly Confines, having done so in August of 2021.
This helps the White Sox retain the City Series trophy since they would finish in no worse than a tie with their northside rivals in 2022 since only two contests remain between the teams at Guaranteed Rate Field this season.
Those will be played on May 28th and 29th.
Unlike a rainy, windy Monday night, power ruled the day early as the teams combined for four homers in the first three innings as the Cubs jumped into the lead. After Jose Abreu’s first inning homer, the Cubs countered with a two-run blast by Nico Hoerner and a solo shot by Patrick Wisdom to take a 3-1 lead. Leury Garcia countered with a second homer of the year in the third to cut the lead to one.
The White Sox went more small ball to get the lead as a single by Gavin Sheets in the fourth tied the game and an AJ Pollock RBI hit put them in the lead.
Lucas Giolito worked into the sixth before the bullpen put on a strong performance over the final 3 1/3 innings. Five pitchers allowed just two hits and only one major threat in the eighth inning, but Matt Foster shut that down with a strikeout of Ian Happ with the tying run on third.
Liam Hendriks finished off the win with a perfect ninth in ten pitches.