Cubs beat White Sox 7-6, keep stacking needed wins

With Friday night’s 7-6 win over the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs sit just two games below .500. That’s the closest they’ve been to an even record since they were two games under on June 12.

The Cubs have reached a crucial juncture in their season, one where nearly every game feels like a must-win. They can thank going 21-34 across May and June for that, but whatever the case, they’re close enough to a National League wild card spot that these August games still mean something.

The scheduling stars may have aligned just right, however.

The Cubs have several built-in off-days this month and a lot of games against teams with losing records. After Saturday’s game against the White Sox, the Cubs go to Cleveland on Monday to face the Guardians — who lead the American League Central but have lost seven in a row — and then there are games against the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals to close out the month.

“I’m well aware that any team can get you on any given day, but you need to beat the teams you need to beat,” Friday’s starter Jameson Taillon said. “And that’s something, in years past, I’ve been on teams where it felt like you either made the playoffs because you beat the teams you need to beat or you miss because you don’t beat up on the teams you have to beat.”

Taillon held the Sox scoreless for the first three innings Friday, buffeted by seven early Cubs runs, but he faltered in the fourth. The Sox scored four runs in the fourth, on their way to ultimately trimming the Cubs’ lead to one run. Without the buffer provided by the offense in the first three frames, they would have dropped a winnable game in the midst of this crucial stretch.

Home runs were the story of those seven early runs. Most fans were barely in their seats before Ian Happ led off the first inning with a solo shot, and then later in the frame, Cody Bellinger hit the first homer White Sox starter Garrett Crochet has given up to a left-handed hitter all season. Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner joined the longball party in the third.

It was the kind of offensive production the Cubs were lacking in the first half of the season, and it’s the primary reason they are trying to dig out of the bottom of the standings in the second week of August. They did have a tough schedule in the first half, but the Cubs didn’t help themselves by floundering on offense.

“I think we’re all pretty aware that we had a tough schedule there for a while. It felt like we were in the jungle for a bit,” Taillon said.

A softer schedule in August could help the Cubs stack much-needed wins, for sure, but getting the offense going might help them do more than just keep flirting with a wild card spot.

The lineup is doing better largely because the guys batting lower in the order are starting to produce. Where the sixth through ninth spots had struggled in the first half of the season, guys like Dansby Swanson, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya are hitting the ball better.

“One of the things that’s happening is that you’re consistent because we have nine guys that are producing [on] offense right now,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.

On Friday, the Cubs had 16 hits, and the bottom four spots in the lineup were responsible for almost half of them. Hoerner homered and singled, Swanson singled and scored in the third inning, Crow-Armstrong went 3-for-4 and Amaya singled in the fifth inning. 

For Bellinger and Crow-Armstrong, in particular, doing damage against the southpaw Crochet was a tall order. He has been brutal on lefties all season, holding them to a .197 average.

However, Bellinger and Crow-Armstrong both got two hits against Crochet. Both batters approached their plate appearances against Crochet looking to keep things simple, knowing they were facing high heat coming at them from a tough angle. 

Crow-Armstrong said Crochet’s pitches can look like they’re coming behind his head, but he tried to emulate Bellinger’s approach and focus on getting his bat on the ball against Crochet’s heat. 

“I was just thinking about keeping my front shoulder in the whole da,y” Crow-Armstrong said. “I was just trying to do what Cody did, you know? I’m not opposed to pulling a ball against a lefty, and I think Cody just does a really good job of being able to get his swing off. He’s got special eyes and special plate awareness, but there’s not much more you can really do against a guy throwing 97 [mph] except put your bat on the ball. And whatever sets you up to do that, that’s what we were shooting for.”

Zooming out, Hoerner has a .291 batting average over his last 30 games, Swanson .286, Amaya .260, and Crow-Armstrong has been red hot, batting .314 in his last 14 games and .417 over his last seven. That kind of production from the last four spots in the order will yield a lot more wins — wins the Cubs need to keep collecting if they are going to salvage their season.

The bigger question for the Cubs might be whether winning at their current pace will be enough. They are off to a 6-2 start in August, but they still need to depend on several other teams in the NL to falter. Otherwise, they’ll will be left looking in on the playoffs from the outside.

But if there is a path to at least controlling their end of this equation, a softer August schedule lines up nicely for them.

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