Rally falls short as Cubs fall to rival White Sox |
MESA - It took long enough, nine games to be exact, but the Chicago Cubs finally lost another game ending their nine-game winning streak. After grabbing an early 1-0 lead off of Lucas Giolitto, the Cubs managed to maintain that lead until the middle innings as the White Sox ripped off four unanswered runs to take the 4-1 lead.
With just three outs to work with, the Cubs began to show their grit in the ninth as they started to mount a furious ninth-inning comeback that saw two runs come across with a chance at more. That was until Declan Cronin induced a game-ending double play off the bat of Bradlee Beesley to give the White Sox a 4-3 win. Giolito was very good in his three innings as he walked to and struck out six. The White Sox will need him to return to his ace ability if they want to make the postseason this year. Opposing Giolito was the Cubs left-hander Drew Smyly who desperately needed a great start. Smyly delivered as he allowed four hits with two punchouts in four scoreless innings of work, as this was his best start this spring. Smyly was solid, but like in most of his spring starts thus far, it took him an inning or so to settle in. With Andrew Benintendi picking up a two-out single followed by the Yasmani Grandal double, the White Sox had a great chance to break through early only to come away empty. That proved costly in the game's early stages as the Cubs managed to strike first in the third. After wasting an opportunity of their own in the second when the Cubs put the first two men on base, a one-out single from Ian Happ gave the Cubs another baserunner as they were looking to strike first. Happ would advance to third on a costly error later in the inning and then came home on the Eric Hosmer single for the 1-0 lead. Hosmer had a great day at the plate and finished his afternoon 2-2 with that RBI. With the White Sox wasting another leadoff double in the fourth inning and staying off the board, Smyly finished his start with the lead intact as he turned things over to the pen in the fifth. First out was the left-hander Ryan Borucki as he continues to fight for one of those final spots. Borucki has been solid most of the spring, but after walking Jake Marisnick to lead things off and having Bryan Ramos take him deep, the White Sox not only took a 2-1 lead, but never trailed after that. Borucki bounced back nicely to retire the next three hitters, but the damage was still done with the Cubs now trailing. With Brad Boxberger and Caleb Kilian tossing a pair of scoreless frames, the game shifted to the eighth inning with the Sox still leading 2-1. On for his second inning of work in the eighth, Kilian served up a leadoff bomb to Seby Zavala as the Sox extended their lead to 3-1. Like with Borucki when he served up his homer, Kilian didn't get down on himself and got through the rest of the eighth inning with the Cubs still within striking distance. While the Cubs pen has been solid most of the spring, the White Sox pen was shaky at best, and you started to see that in the eighth inning. Beesley picked up a hard-hit single in the eighth and then advanced to third on another single from David Bote to put runners on the corners. Edgar Navarro kept things right there as he got out of the jam and sent the game to the ninth. Not only was that critical, but the first two batters of the ninth inning were crucial to the White Sox coming away with the win. Jake Berger started the ninth inning with a hard-hit single to left. He would then race around the bases to score on the Grandal double as an error in left from Yonathan Perlaza aided the runner scoring on the play. That hit from Grandal proved to be the game-winner as the Cubs came out firing in the ninth. With just three outs to work with, Yohendrick Pinango got things started with a sharp hit single to left. That was just the beginning, as Dom Nunez picked up a single two batters later, followed by another well-struck ball from Sergio Alcantara up the middle to make things 4-2. The Cubs continued to keep things rolling, with Perlaza picking up the Cubs third consecutive single, and just like that, it was a 4-3 game. Needing a single to tie the game or an extra-base hit to win, Beesley stepped up to the plate with a chance to play hero. Unfortunately, his well-struck ball was fielded by Moises Castillo at third as he started the game-ending double play to seal the deal for the White Sox. Hosmer and Alcantara led the way with two hits and two RBIs as the Cubs had 11 hits in the game. Chicago returns to the diamond Saturday when they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hayden Wesneski is scheduled to make the start.
