Cubs 6, White Sox 5: Three homers sink Jeff Samardzija

I half-watched the first six innings of this one at work, so let's run through this one in bullet points, and feel free to add what I've missed.

*Jeff Samardzija took the loss in this one, and it was richly deserved, as he blew leads of 2-1 and 5-4. Chris Coghlan was responsible for both, as he hit a three-run homer in the third, and a solo shot with two outs in the fifth. Samardzija then gave up a back-to-back homer to Anthony Rizzo before that inning came to a close, putting the Cubs up for good.

*The Cubs extended their winning streak to eight games; the Sox' streak ends at three.

*That said, Samardzija might not have deserved all six of his runs. The Cubs took a 1-0 lead after Avisail Garcia charged Dexter Fowler's sinking line drive and let it get past him. It should've been scored a single and a two-base error, but the scorer credited Fowler with a triple. A sac fly scored Fowler for a cheap earned run on Samardzija's tab. The others were legit.

*The Sox offense punched back. Garcia delivered a two-run double off Kyle Hendricks in the first. After Coghlan's three-run homer in the third, the Sox found three runs of their own in the fourth. Carlos Sanchez made the first one possible by singling with one out, stealing second and then scoring on Geovany Soto's single. Then Adam Eaton went oppo for his 10th homer to put the Sox ahead 5-4.

*The Sox also had chances in the eighth inning, but traditional managing failed them. First, Sanchez bunted Alexei Ramirez to second after a leadoff infield single, and obviously playing for one run didn't pay off. There was a glimmer of hope when Pedro Strop walked Soto to put the potential go-ahead run on base, but he came back to strike out Eaton and Tyler Saladino to escape the inning, leaving Abreu on deck. That is why Saladino should not be hitting ahead of Abreu.

*Strop punctuated the latter strikeout with two vigorous full-bodied arm pumps, with more wrestling-grade histrionics as he made his way back to the dugout. But Ramirez did give him a weird double finger-wag when Strop stepped off on a 3-2 count, on the chance Ramirez might leave early. The Cubs won the gesture fight, and then the battle. The war is tied at 2-2.

Record: 54-59 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights