Key takeaways: Cubs 7, White Sox 5

CHICAGO – With roughly six weeks remaining in the regular season, fans on Chicago’s North and South Sides can realistically dream about October baseball. The Cubs are in the thick of the National League Wild Card race, while the White Sox currently sit atop the American League Central.

On Monday night, the crosstown rivals met at Wrigley Field, where Pete Crow-Armstrong started off with a leadoff homer, and then ended things with a two-run, walk-off homer to give the Cubs a 7-5 victory in 10 innings over the White Sox.

Excluding the abbreviated 2020 campaign, this marks the first time since 2008 that both series between the clubs in a season had the Cubs and Sox each boasting a winning record at the time.

“Someone pointed out this is the biggest series since 1906,” quipped Cubs manager Craig Counsell pregame, referring to the World Series between the franchises. “These are fun for the fans. It’s fun when you can sit next to your family member, your best friend, your uncle, whatever, and you’re cheering for a different team and you can have fun with that. That’s the best part about it.”

Here were three takeaways from Monday’s win:

1. Cubs’ one-two punch

Crow-Armstrong – beloved on the North Side and a thorn in the side of White Sox fans – got the Wrigley crowd buzzing early by launching a no-doubt homer on the first pitch he saw on Monday night. Seiya Suzuki ratcheted the environment up even more when he followed with a blast of his own.

Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki went deep to right and left-center field, respectively, to get Chicago’s offense rolling against White Sox starter Luis Castillo. For the Cubs’ center fielder, it marked his 29th homer of the year and his fifth leadoff shot of the season. Suzuki’s home run was his 22nd of the campaign.

Counsell moved Suzuki into the lineup’s second slot on July 11 for a few reasons. One, he liked the idea of Suzuki’s powerful bat sitting behind Crow-Armstrong, who is in the midst of an MVP-caliber season. Counsell also wanted Suzuki, who hits from the right side, between the lefty bats of Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch to guard against opposing teams’ bullpen decisions.

Entering Monday, the Cubs Nos. 1-2 spots of the order had produced an .887 OPS and 143 Weighted Runs Created Plus dating back to July 11. Both of those numbers ranked first in the National League in that span and were third overall in the Majors.

Crow-Armstrong finished a triple shy of a cycle in his two-homer performance, while Suzuki added a walk to his night in Monday’s win. With the two homers, the Cubs center fielder also notched 30 homers and 30 steals on the season, becoming the first NL player to do so in back-to-back years since Ryan Braun in 2011-12.

2. Shota’s quality start

Shota Imanaga has been on a strong run for the North Siders for the past couple months and he was particularly sharp with his splitter against the White Sox.

Overall, Imanaga racked up 10 strikeouts and equaled a career high for a start with 15 whiffs (swinging strikes) via his signature split-finger fastball. It marked the lefty’s first double-digit strikeout showing since May 7 and helped him walk off the mound with a 2.67 ERA across his last 12 starts for the Cubs.

Of course, one of the realities of Imanaga’s style of pitching is that he will be prone to giving up home runs. The task for the lefty is to limit the damage around him. Imanaga slipped in that regard in the fourth, when he issued a leadoff walk to Munetaka Murakami, allowed a single to Miguel Vargas and then yielded a three-run homer to Randal Grichuk.

Those three runs were the damage done against Imanaga in his six innings, in which he allowed just two hits and issued three walks. He hit a batter to lead off the third and allowed a leadoff walk in the sixth, but sidestepped harm in both of those instances.

3. Forcing extras

A baserunning blunder by Alex Bregman in the seventh inning nearly cost the Cubs, but a ninth-inning rally against Jordan Hicks bailed out the veteran third baseman.

Bregman singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Ian Happ and then moved up to third on a single off the bat of Nico Hoerner. Then with two outs and Cubs rookie Kevin Alcántara in an 0-2 count against reliever Trevor Richards, Hoerner bolted for second base.

White Sox catcher Jake Rogers burst out of his crouch and pump faked a throw to second. On third, Bregman jumped forward, creating an opening for Rogers to throw to Vargas, who got the tag on in time for a critical, inning-ending out. In the wake of that gaffe, Andrew Benintendi delivered a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the ninth to push the Cubs behind, 5-4.

In the bottom of the ninth, Bregman got some redemption by drawing a one-out walk against the hard-throwing Hicks to start a game-tying push for the Cubs. Happ followed with a free pass of his own and then Hoerner pulled the game even, 5-5, with an RBI single to center.