Ian Happ hit a leadoff home run, Cody Bellinger also homered, and the Chicago Cubs went deep four times before holding on to beat the White Sox 7-6 on Friday night, ruining Grady Sizemore’s debut as manager.
The White Sox, led by Andrew Benintendi’s two home runs, almost erased a 7-0 deficit but fell short in their first game after firing manager Pedro Grifol and naming Sizemore as interim manager. The White Sox made the change on Thursday, just two days after ending a 21-game losing streak that matched an American League record.
The White Sox loaded the bases in the ninth inning against Héctor Neris, but Neris retired Andrew Vaughn with a fly ball to center and secured his 16th save in 20 chances.
“I feel like these games are always a little wacky against the White Sox,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “We probably all knew they were gonna punch back and they weren’t dead over there and they weren’t done.
Regardless of what type of year they’re having, they’re still big leaguers and this is a rivalry game and it’s exciting, there’s tons of fans in the stands.”
Happ’s homer was his sixth career leadoff blast. Bellinger added a two-run homer in the first inning and ended up with three hits.
Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning, helping the Cubs score four runs in the inning and chase White Sox starter Garrett Crochet (6-9) to take a 7-0 lead. However, the Cubs had to fight to maintain their lead and secure their seventh win in nine games.
“That was definitely a fun start coming off an off day,” Bellinger said. “It just feels good getting on a roll and Happer there starting things off really quick.”
The White Sox lost for the 23rd time in 24 games and fell a franchise-record 62 games below .500 at 28-90. They joined the 1916 Philadelphia A’s (26-91-1) as the only teams to lose 90 or more games in the first 118 games of the season.
