Ian Happ hit a home run early in the game against Garrett Crochet, Cody Bellinger followed with a two-run blast, and the Cubs hit two consecutive home runs in the third inning against White Sox All-Star Garrett Crochet.
A seven-point lead had created all the conditions for a crushing defeat for the Cubs.
In front of 38,127 fans, the Cubs won 7-6, the Sox’s second sold-out game this season at Guaranteed Rate Field during Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore’s first tenure at the helm, succeeding Pedro Grifol, who was fired as Sox manager on Thursday after a 28-89 record.
The Cubs (58-60) improved their record against the Sox (28-90) in the crosstown series to 3-0, keeping the edge on breaking the Mets’ record of 120 losses in a season set in 1962.
The Sox scored four in the fourth inning and got solo home runs by Andrew Benintendi in the fifth and seventh innings. Andrew Vaughn, who homered in the fourth inning against Jameson Taillon, retired Hector Neris on a flyout with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, ending the game in the ninth inning.
Touki Toussaint (3 1/3 innings), Justin Anderson, Chad Kuhl and John Brebbia combined to pitch 6 2/3 scoreless innings as relief pitchers, marking the Sox bullpen’s best performance of the season.
Benintendi, not known for his pitching ability, struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong at the plate in the fifth inning. The home run marked the second time in his career that Benintendi had hit a home run in three straight games. He has hit five home runs in his last five games.
Crochet went 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits, including four home runs and a triple, but did not allow a walk and struck out five players. He threw 67 pitches, including 47 strikes, before being replaced by Sizemore in favor of Touki Toussaint.
Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner hit two home runs in a row in the third inning.
How many more starts Crochet will make as the Sox monitor his workload in his first full season as a starter is unknown. What is known is that Crochet’s performance since pitching a scoreless inning for the American League in the All-Star Game looks like this: 13 1/3 innings, 13 earned runs, 20 hits, 20 strikeouts, seven walks.
Since May 10, Crochet had allowed four home runs in 77 2/3 innings in 15 starts.
“It felt good, I just wasn’t getting the ball to the glove side properly,” Crochet said. “That’s been my strength all year. When I don’t do it well, the game kind of gets out of hand, like it did tonight. On the cutter, I felt like I had to back off and leave the ball on the arm side. That’s an easy fix that I can work on in my bullpen.
“The fact is that it’s been like this for three or four weeks now. I kept telling myself that it was a bad day or my body felt good and my arm was a little late and it was a question of timing. But I just have to get better.”
Crochet’s velocity against the Cubs peaked at 97.6 mph.
