Chicago White Sox players warmly greeted their ace as he returned to the team Thursday following his jersey-tearing incident last weekend that earned him a five-day suspension.
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Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman delivers in this multiple exposure photo during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, July 28, 2016, in Chicago.
Chris Sale found a uniform to his liking, the White Sox traditional road grays.
But all was hunky-dory when he squared off against the cross-town rival Chicago Cubs.
It wasn’t good enough, though, not with John Lackey outpitching him and Aroldis Chapman throwing 102 miles per hour fastballs.
Chicago swept a three-game series here in mid-April and is making its first of two trips to the Twin Cities over the next four weeks. “It’s definitely something you want to tune in to see for sure”.
Perez, who started at shortstop for benched Jonathan Villar, crushed the first pitch from Robbie Ray (5-10) 458 feet off the facing of the scoreboard in deep center for the two-run homer in the third.
“It felt like I was out on an island, really”, Sale said of his suspension. He allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings and hit his first career home run in the 8-1 loss to the Cubs.
Lackey (8-7) allowed one run in six innings for his first win since June 8.
Dexter Fowler ran well between the bases to score two runs of a Kris Bryant double and a Ben Zobrist single, while Zobrist scored himself off an Addison Russell hit. The White Sox scratched Sale, sent him home and a day later suspended him five days for “insubordination and for destroying team equipment”. Sale said they were uncomfortable and became enraged when the team wouldn’t switch them out, feeling the team was putting marketing over winning.
“We’re here to win games and from this point forward I think that’s our main focus”, Sale said”.
I hope she winds up donating quite a bit of money; that would be good for the Cubs and good for the organizations she decides to donate to. The Cubs tweeted out their lineup before the game with the line “Throwback Thursday, anyone?”
Several teammates hugged a smiling Sale when he arrived in the clubhouse before the game. “I want to let them know where my head’s at, where my heart’s at”. He also improved to 2 for 16 at the plate when his slow grounder up the middle hit second base and bounded away for a single. It was their second victory in a row after the Sox claimed the first two games of the crosstown series at U.S. Cellular Field. Rondon complicated matters tonight by serving up a leadoff double to Tyler Saladino to start the eighth (-.150). At that point Joe Maddon made a decision to summon Chapman for a four-out save.
After a rough introductory news conference when he struggled to answer questions about a previous domestic violence case, Chapman said he was “ecstatic about the environment”.
Cubs: With OF Jorge Soler (hamstring) close to returning, the team will have a hard roster decision.
“It could go a lot of ways”, catcher Dioner Navarro said. Cubs bats were looking for a statement performance against an elite arm in the form of Chris Sale. Heyward, hampered by a sore wrist, is hitting.229 with four homers and has a.315 slugging percentage.
“I know the crowd’s going to be a little insane”, Frazier said. “We’ve seem him do some really great stuff”.
White Sox: DH Justin Morneau, who won the AL MVP with the Twins in 2006, returns to Minnesota on Friday.
Bartolo Colon pitched three-hit ball for seven sharp innings and the New York Mets overcame another home run by Jedd Gyorko to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 Tuesday night for a doubleheader split.
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In dropping both games on the Southside this week, the Cubs sentenced themselves to their first non-victorious series of the second half.
