Cubs’ 10-5 – The Cubs capped their nine-game road trip at 35th and Shields with a 10-5 win over the White Sox, scoring early, adding four runs in the eighth, and getting key contributions throughout their lineup. Manager Craig Counsell praised the offense, highlighted reli
The dateline was 35th and Shields. South Side. and the Cubs came in carrying the kind of relief that only shows up when a long trip ends in your own bed.. “Considering he was able to sleep in his own bed Thursday night. would this rank as half a home game for Cubs manager Craig Counsell?” the question went. and Counsell didn’t argue with the framing.
“That’s a good way to say it,’’ Counsell said. “It’s nice when you look at the schedule and you see nine games of gray boxes [road games], but then you finish at home. Yeah, it is nice.’’
Rate Field, at least for one night, felt less like a venue and more like territory.. The Cubs put their feet up on the furniture. left towels on the floor and empties on the coffee tables. and invited thousands of their closest friends to hang out and howl. acting — at least to the Sox side — as though they “owned the place.” The result. after a week of baseball in Texas and Georgia where the team had looked “out of sorts. ” was a kind of return to form that didn’t stay quiet for long.
With every player in the Cubs’ starting lineup getting at least one hit. they rolled to a 10-5 victory before 38. 723 fans who stayed loud all night for both teams.. Three players finished with two hits. and Carson Kelly had three — including the baseline-hugging ground-ball single that broke a tie in the seventh inning.
“We played a really good offensive game tonight, for sure,’’ Counsell said. “I know it’s been a little bit light the last four or five days, but we played a really good offensive game all around.
“I mean, we just made it hard. Every at-bat, it felt like we made it hard on them. Bunch of hits, walks, the baserunning was really good. It was a very good offensive game.’’
The Cubs doubled their run total from a stretch that had been quieter than they were used to, scoring 10 runs compared with the five they’d managed over the previous five games. That included back-to-back shutouts in Texas, a reminder of what the team could do when it clicked.
After Ian Happ’s RBI single in the first inning set the early tone. the Cubs built the offensive pressure into their later innings.. The night didn’t include a home run. even as Alex Bregman twice came just short with towering drives to center. and those balls were “better struck than his two singles.” Still. the Cubs hit four doubles and kept manufacturing runs.
Beginning with that first-inning push and ending with Kelly’s two-run double in the eighth. they scored four times in the eighth to break it open.. Four walks helped fuel that surge.. Overall, the Cubs had six hits in 14 chances with runners in scoring position.. They had been 1-for-34 with RISP in their last five games combined — a stark contrast to how the night unfolded.
One run came on a wild pitch, another on a bases-loaded walk, and even without the long ball, the scoring stayed steady enough that the crowd never seemed to let up.
Kelly, who knocked in a game-high four runs against the Sox, was greeted with thunderous cheers — cheers drowned out only by the PCA chants for “you-know-who.” Asked if he understood more clearly what was at stake after the kind of personal output the night delivered, he pointed to history.
“Oh, it’s special,’’ he said. “I mean, there’s a lot of history between these two organizations, and to be a part of it is really cool. To see the energy in the stadium and the crowd, you know it’s always going to be fun playing these guys.’’
There was also another storyline buried inside the offense: Counsell made sure the focus wasn’t limited to the big innings and the hits.. In the middle of the runpalooza. he admonished the interrogators not to overlook bespectacled reliever Trent Thornton. who had been a Cub for all of nine days after six up-and-down seasons with the Blue Jays and Mariners.. Thornton had made four appearances and had yet to allow a run in any of them.
The key sequence came in the sixth. Thornton inherited a first-and-third, no-out situation after Miguel Vargas had just tied the score with a home run. Counsell said Thornton “emerged unscathed from that jam,” then got the side out in order in the seventh.
“We’ve got to talk about Thornton tonight,’’ Counsell said. “That was a huge effort. It wasn’t the ninth inning, so it doesn’t seem like a save, but that’s a save in a baseball game.”
The swing of the night follows a clear chain: after Happ’s RBI single in the first and a tie-breaking hit in the seventh. the Cubs added four more runs in the eighth. then turned to Thornton’s scoreless relief work after Vargas tied the game with a home run in the sixth — leaving the Sox chasing a score the Cubs kept extending.
Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Crosstown rivalry Craig Counsell Carson Kelly Trent Thornton Ian Happ Rate Field PCA chants MLB