White Sox humbled by 13-3 loss in Crosstown Classic opener

Miguel Vargas was the only player to show up for the South Siders

Things started out fun for the White Sox, but then gradually starting going downhill until the game snowballed into a complete disaster, falling to the Cubs in the first game of the Crosstown Series, 13-3. Miguel Vargas had a career day, going 4-for-4 with two homers, a double, and all of the South Side RBIs, but Shane Smith was off his game with the defense struggling behind him.

Just like Will Venable drew it up, Chase Meidroth got on base to start the game and poked a hit to shallow left, stealing second shortly after to get in scoring position. Meidroth was originally ruled out on the stolen base attempt, but the umps reconvened when the White Sox were looking to challenge the call. They ended up overturning the call — citing interference — though he would have been safe either way, as replay showed Meidroth’s hand beating the tag. Miguel Vargas took advantage of the situation and stayed hot, blasting a two-run shot to left field and take a two-run lead.

Joshua Palacios has also been on a hot streak and carried it over today, ripping a base hit down the third base line to keep the inning rolling. It unfortunately ended on the next at-bat, however, as Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner made a web-gem catch while robbing Andrew Vaughn on a line drive that would have fallen in the gap. Tough for Vaughn, as that ball had a .740 xBA.

The South Siders started to get something going again in the second, after back-to-back base hits from Josh Rojas and Brooks Baldwin. The Cubs were bailed out by the umps, though, when Meidroth hit a ground ball that Baldwin committed “interference” on from apparent “contact” to shortstop Dansby Swanson. It was already extremely a really weak call, but when you slowed it down, Swanson pulled off a perfect LeBron-esque flop to earn the double play — and looked ridiculous doing it.

It had taken just seven pitches for Shane Smith to retire the Cubs in order in the bottom of the first. But things quickly changed in the second as the North Siders started to strike back, and suddenly the game was tied at two. It took 36 pitches to work through the chaos, and Smith wasn’t getting much help from his defense. For some reason, Will Venable decided to pull his infield in while up two runs with no outs, which really came back to bite the White Sox. Smith got into some trouble after a single and a double put runners on the second and third, but he was able to strikeout Swanson to humble him after his flop in the top half.

With one out, Vaughn came home charging on a one-hopper but threw high and slightly behind Matt Thaiss to allow Michael Busch to score the first run for the Cubs. It was also a great slide, but a good throw likely could have had him. Or, ya know, he could have just gotten the out at first base to prevent a disaster, but hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it?

From there, things were a mess. With the infield still in, Meidroth had a great look on a ground ball to get Carson Kelley out at home to cut down the tying run. Kelley would have been out by a mile, but Thaiss dropped the ball and the run scored. If one day the Sox could have a clean inning, that would be really cool.

Smith struck out Jon Berti to get two outs, but from there the Cubs went on a four-run rally to nearly hit for the cycle in consecutive batters. Pete Crow-Armstrong mashed a three-run homer on a full count, followed by a triple from Kyle Tucker and an RBI double from Seiya Suzuki to cap it off. Shane Smith got all three outs on strikeouts, as the defense didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

The Sox offense cooled way down after the second inning, but Vargas still seemed to have Cade Horton’s number. He sent his second home run of the game out to left in the top of the third. After that, the Good Guys couldn’t make anything happen, only putting up two rogue singles from Rojas in the fourth and Vargas in the sixth.

Thankfully Smith was able to rebound from the chaos, retiring the North Siders in order in the third. PCA got on base once again and stole second before reaching third on a wild pitch, but Smith worked out of it — forcing both Tucker and Suzuki to fly out.

Smith came out again for the fifth with 72 pitches through four, and though he gave up one hit and had another wild pitch, he once again made it out without any runs scoring. It was a bit of a strange day for Shane in the end, as only one of the six runs given up was earned — Crow-Armstrong’s homer — with one walk and five strikeouts. Smith’s changeup wasn’t as effective as it usually is, only drawing an 18% CSW, but he made up for it a bit with his fastball and slider, which combined for 21 called strikes plus whiffs at a 38% CSW%.

Out to relieve Smith was lefthander Tyler Gilbert, who made it just 13 pitches before exiting the game with one out and an apparent kneey injury. Brandon Eisert took his place in a key situation with a runner on third and the heart of the order to deal with. He inherited PCA as his first batter with a 2-0 count, and he ended up getting on base thanks to Rojas over-running a pop-up that seemed like it was going to end up in foul territory, but the wind pulled it back to drop in shallow right. Tucker and Suzuki continued their reign of terror as a dangerous duo, and added consecutive RBIs with a base hit and sacrifice fly to add two more insurance runs to make it 8-3, Cubs.

Joining the team today from the Houston Astros, Miguel Castro entered the game for Eisert to try to get the White Sox out of another jam. Carson Kelley blasted a hard-hit ball to third, but once again, Vargas was the hero for the South Siders, and made an impressive play on a 95.1 mph short hop to get out of the inning.

Castro got into trouble again in the eighth with a walk and a double, but worked through two outs, striking out Swanson and old friend Nicky Lopez. Yet again, PCA continued to be a menace for the South Siders, and drove in another two runs to increase the Cubs lead to seven, 10-3.

The Sox were running out of chances to score runs, and while unlikely to close the massive gap, Vargas smoked his fourth hit of the day. It was a double this time, just missing his third home run off of the left-center wall. It didn’t matter, of course, as Vaughn grounded out to Lopez at third to get the Cubs out of the inning and end any semblance of a threat — if you even want to call it that.

Yoendrys Gómez was claimed off of waivers from the Dodgers last week, and appeared in his second game for the South Siders. It was not a great outing for him, and he gave up three more runs to extend the lead to double-digits. Really, what were three more runs at that point?

Either way, the White Sox rolled over in the top of the ninth. Edgar Quero led off the inning with a base hit, but Baldwin ended up grounding into a double play to finally end the game.

The Cubs now hold a six-game Crosstown Classic win streak. Thankfully it was a day game and we can all get on with the rest of our Friday. Until we have to do it again tomorrow, of course.

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Futility Watch

White Sox 2025 Record 14-31, tied for the second-worst start in White Sox history and tied for the 66th-worst start in baseball history. A 14-31 record projects to 50-112 over a full season. A year ago, the record-breaking White Sox also were 14-31.

All-Time White Sox Record (1901-2025, 19,251 games) 9,608-9,643 (.4991). It’s been 89 games since the White Sox had an all-time winning record.

Record Since the New Pope Was Revealed as a White Sox Fan 4-3

• Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2024 White Sox, 41-121)
• Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120-1, finished three percentage points worse than the 2024 White Sox)
• Race to the Most White Sox Losses (2024, 121)
• Race to the Worst White Sox Record (2024, 41-121)

9 games better, in all cases

Race to the Worst Post-1899 Record (1916 A’s, 38-124 adjusted to 162 games) 12 games better

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