CHICAGO -- The crowd inside Wrigley Field roared as the baseball that left Alex Bregman’s bat in the seventh inning on Wednesday afternoon carried high over left field. It seemed destined for the bleachers, but this was one of those days when the wind can transform the old ballpark into a hitter’s nightmare.
White Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci made a leaping catch at the ivy-covered wall and the Cubs fans groaned. Instead of a game-tying homer from Bregman -- the walk-off hero one night earlier -- the North Siders were on their way to a 3-0 loss to close out the latest chapter in the city’s annual crosstown clash.
According to Statcast, the wind blew Bregman’s deep fly in by six feet -- indeed pushing a would-be home run back into play. The White Sox then added a pair of runs in the eighth to pick up a win in a series the Cubs claimed, 2-1. Overall, the teams split the six-game season series in a year both the Cubs and Sox are on a course for the postseason.
“You could feel the energy here,” Cubs starter Clay Holmes said of his first crosstown series in Chicago. “A lot of passion in the stands. It’s always fun when you have two good teams in the same city and you get to play these series. It’s always a blast. I think everybody wants to see both of them do well. Hopefully we’ll make a deep run in the postseason.”
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss:
1. Holmes’ strong effort
For the second outing in a row, sinkerballer Clay Holmes gave the Cubs the type of start the ballclub needed. The righty worked into the sixth inning and was piling up groundouts along the way.
“I thought he was really good,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Breggy had a great game at third base, I thought, on defense. But, the ball was on the ground. I thought he pitched very, very well.”
Holmes cruised through five shutout innings before finally flinching in the sixth, when Miguel Vargas led off with an automatic double that landed beyond the reach of left fielder Ian Happ and got stuck in the ivy. Andrew Benintendi followed with an RBI single that put the Cubs in a 1-0 hole.
That was the lone blemish for Holmes in his 5 1/3 innings, in which he scattered six hits and issued two walks, while limiting the potential damage with the help of a dozen outs via ground balls. Over his past two outings -- both at Wrigley Field -- Holmes has yielded just one run over 12 innings combined.
2. Cubs vs. Urquidy
If José Urquidy’s name rings a bell for Cubs fans, he was in a proposed trade four years ago that would have brought him to the North Siders. At the 2022 Trade Deadline, Chicago nearly sent Willson Contreras to the Astros in a one-for-one deal for the right-handed pitcher.
That deal did not reach the finish line and Urquidy’s baseball road led him to the South Side.
In Wednesday’s loss for the Cubs, the 31-year-old Urquidy came out of the bullpen after lefty Sean Newcomb served as an opener for two innings. Using a six-pitch mix led with his sinker, Urquidy was brilliant against the North Siders for six shutout innings, racking up eight strikeouts along the way.
“He did a great job of changing speeds,” Counsell said. “I thought you could see our hitters -- although it’s not big velocity on the fastball -- when he threw a fastball, it really surprised our hitters. He had the offspeed stuff, the changeup to the righties. First-pitch breaking balls to get ahead of the righties. He just pitched really well.”
3. Taylor’s running blunder
The Cubs had a prime scoring chance in the sixth inning, when Tyrone Taylor led off by ripping a pitch from Urquidy into the left-field corner for a double. Up next was center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who launched three home runs combined in the previous two games against the South Siders.
This time around, Crow-Armstrong sent a line drive to right field, where Braden Montgomery was in position to make the catch. Taylor hustled back to second base to tag up and then tried to sprint to third to move the potential game-tying run up 90 feet. It proved to be the wrong decision.
“He got a little bit of a bad read,” Counsell said. “He was a little late tagging. But, there wasn’t much offense coming, it didn’t look like.”
Montgomery unleashed a 95.1 mph throw, per Statcast, that rocketed to Vargas at third. Vargas caught the ball a few steps off the bag, but in perfect position to apply a tag on Taylor for a crucial second out on the play. Urquidy then finished his escape act by inducing a groundout off the bat of slugger Seiya Suzuki.