Tempers flare as Sox fall to Cubs, 8-3

“There are two rules in this game. The first is you gotta catch the ball. Next is you don’t mess with Joe West”. Those were Hawk Harreleson’s words following the back-to-back ejections of Tim Anderson and Ricky Renteria in the ninth inning.

Anderson was upset after Javier Baez visibly reached out towards his leg on a slide, which umpire West didn’t call and that upon further review, was upheld. Renteria was subsequently thrown out following Anderson’s ejection.

As dramatic as the entire situation may sound, the game was all but decided by the time the South Siders started getting tossed from the game. The ejections came after the Cubs had just tacked on the final security run in what would be a three-run ninth. So frustration probably played as big a factor as anything, especially after staying within relative striking distance of the Cubs for the majority of the game.

Lucas Giolito continued his first inning woes, when after getting Daniel Murphy to line out and Ben Zobrist singling, Baez blasted a two-run shot to left field, giving the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Giolito would again pull through his bad first inning and provide some good pitching until giving up another three runs in the fifth.

The White Sox would quickly get one run back in the bottom of the first after Yolmer Sanchez singled and advanced to second after Baez airmailed a throw to first, and then was batted in by Matt Davidson. Then, after a scoreless second inning, Tim Anderson evened things up at 2-2 with his 20th home run of the season (making him the shortstop in White Sox history to have a 20 homer/20 steal season).

The Sox held things at 2-2 through the fourth and into the fifth, when Giolito’s night began to unravel. After facing only 10 batters and allowing one hit in his previous three innings, the righthander gave up another three runs on three singles and a double that Ryan LaMarre lost in the lights, giving the Cubs all the run support they would need to put Ricky’s Boys away for the evening, making the game 5-2.

Giolito would leave the contest after 6 ²⁄₃ innings and allowing five earned runs on seven hits, striking out five while walking three.

The closest the White Sox could get to the Cubs came in the bottom of the fifth. Anderson scored his second run of the evening off of a Davidson RBI single — but for the the Cubs were not quite done scoring yet.

After Jace Fry went three-up, three-down for the Sox in the eighth, he was replaced by Rob Scahill to start the top of the ninth. Scahill allowed two more runs before being replaced after one third inning by Jeanmar Gómez, who would allow one more security run.

Catch Ricky’s Boys try to have the last laugh against the Cubs in tomorrow’s rubber match at 1:10pm CST at Guaranteed Rate Field. Taking the mound for the White Sox is Carlos Rodon, and opposite of him is Kyle Hendricks for the Cubs.