The first pitch out of Chicago Cubs right-hander Zach Davies’ hand Sunday night at Wrigley Field landed in the right-field bleachers.
Three batters later, Eloy Jiménez connected for a two-run homer, setting off the White Sox fans among the 39,412 at the ballpark. The Sox didn’t stop there, getting Davies for a third time in the first inning on Andrew Vaughn’s two-run homer. The early five-run lead was all the Sox needed to power them to a 9-3 victory over the Cubs to sweep the three-game City Series.
Tim Anderson originally wasn’t in the lineup, scheduled for a day off, but after early work Sunday with Sox hitting coach Frank Menechino, the shortstop found something.
“So Leury (García) gladly gave up his spot,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said, “and (Anderson) had a heck of a day.”
Jiménez finished 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double and five RBIs, while right-hander Dylan Cease gave up three runs in five innings and tallied 10 strikeouts, one shy of his career best, against their former organization.
Jiménez and Cease don’t often talk about the trade that sent them from the Cubs to the White Sox.
“But we always talk about playing hard, especially against them because that was the team we come from,” Jiménez said before the game.
That effort was on full display Sunday night.
“That is in the past, but I honestly had it in my mind, you know?” Jiménez said of facing the Cubs. “I feel really good but I need to move forward. This is in the past. Just keep working hard and be successful.”
The two were part of a July 13, 2017, trade that sent José Quintana to the Cubs. While Quintana is now with the Los Angeles Angels, Jiménez and Cease are big parts of the Sox present and future. And Sunday, they both haunted the Cubs.
“He’s got that total left-field-to-right-field stroke, which makes it difficult to pitch and defend him,” La Russa said of Jiménez. “And he’s got a very live bat. We’re all happy to have him back.”
Cease battled his control briefly in the second and third innings. But he bounced back to strike out five of the final six batters he faced.
“It wasn’t my sharpest game and I was pretty inefficient, but to get the win is really all that matters,” Cease said. “It’s definitely a relief when you start getting in that groove and have everything going.”
The Cubs (52-61) have lost seven of nine since the trade deadline, while the Sox (66-46) have built a 101/2-game lead in the American League Central.
“Definitely dope — to come here and take over this park and get all three of them,” Anderson said. “I can definitely say we were the better team this series for sure.
“It’s good exposure (to be on “Sunday Night Baseball”) for this club. Everybody went out and we competed. We competed from pitch one all the way to the end. We had the chance for the world to see what our lineup looks like. You know how good these guys are. Tonight we played some really good baseball and have an outstanding staff.”
Davies didn’t last past the second inning while recording five of his six outs on strikeouts, surrendering seven runs. Davies, who will be a free agent this offseason, continues to be plagued by inconsistency. After putting together one of his best stretches of the season over six games from June 24 to July 23, he has been tagged for 18 runs in 12 innings (13.50 ERA) during his last three starts.
Davies’ two-inning start was the second-shortest of his career, topped by a 1?-inning outing April 10 in Pittsburgh.
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“It’s definitely a low point in not only the season but my career,” Davies said. “It’s one of those things that I’m working as hard as I possibly can in between starts to figure that out because two innings in my mind, and a lot of other guys’ minds, is unacceptable. You make the bullpen cover seven innings, you put the team in a hole and it just deflates the team.”
The Cubs tried to chip away at the Sox’s 7-0 lead, getting two runs back in the second on Frank Schwindel’s two-run single. In the third, Greg Deichmann drove in his first big-league run with a single to left to make it 7-3.
But that was as close as the Cubs would get. The Sox tacked on to their lead when Jiménez hit his second homer of the game to right field in the fifth. Vaughn brought home another run in the seventh on an RBI single.
After the game, La Russa called Jiménez “a monster.”
“I’m feeling really good,” Jiménez said. “Feel like I am getting it back to normal. Today was the day where I feel really fine at the plate. Just keep working.”
After getting swept by the Sox, the Cubs are now 12-43 when scoring three runs or fewer. Their 55 games with three runs or fewer are tied for sixth-most in MLB.
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