CHICAGO – The 2025 Crosstown Classic began with a dominant series sweep by the Cubs over the White Sox. The Cubs have now won eight straight games in the rivalry.
It began Friday with a 13-3 win, followed by victories of 7-3 and 6-2. Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong starred with eight hits and eight RBI, and the north siders’ pitching staff limited the south siders all weekend. The Cubs improved to 28-19 and extended their lead in the NL Central division to two games.
Miguel Vargas was a bright spot in an otherwise dreary weekend for the White Sox, who have lost four straight games to fall to 14-33 and maintain their spot in last place in the AL Central. Manager Will Venable’s club begins a six-game home stand Monday against the Mariners and Rangers, and they get another shot against the Cubs from July 25-27 at Rate Field.
But before looking too far ahead, here are three takeaways from the White Sox losses.
Early returns on the White Sox trade for third baseman Miguel Vargas last July were negative as he posted a .104/.217/.170/.387 slash line with two home runs and 17 in 43 games at the end of the 2024 season.
The White Sox have talked frequently about putting last season’s 41-121 record in the rearview mirror. Vargas has forgotten it entirely.
“I don’t remember anything about last year. Sorry,” he said with a smile after the first multi-homer game of his career on Friday.
Vargas got off to a slow start in 2025, too, batting .139 through his first 22 games. But after making the slight mechanical adjustment of holding his hands higher in his batting stance, he’s looked like a completely different hitter.
Since April 23, Vargas is 27-for-78, good for a .346 batting average. During that stretch, his OPS has risen from .438 to .749, thanks to six home runs, five doubles and an 8-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
“I’ve been feeling great. I think the adjustment really helped me. I’m really really happy,” Vargas said. “… Sometimes that’s how baseball works. You try to figure it out and then one day you find out and it works. I’m very happy to get the results right away.”
2. Defense lets White Sox down
The White Sox had two opportunities to throw runners out at home in Friday’s game but failed to execute both plays. On the first one, Cubs first baseman Michael Busch slid perfectly to avoid the tag from White Sox catcher Matt Thaiss. Andrew Vaughn could have stepped on first to get an easy out, but throwing home wasn’t necessarily a bad decision as it led to a bang-bang play and could have saved a run.
On the second play, shortstop Chase Meidroth delivered a perfect throw home that should have led to an out, but Thaiss simply dropped it. Venable talked about the strategy to play the infield in and the decisions that came after the ground balls.
“Our process with us, we’ve always been aggressive with infield in,” Venable said. “Objectively, all our information says that that’s the right thing. Then you layer in the game state and where we’re at early in the game. Yeah, we’re up two runs, but we want to be aggressive there and limit runs the best we can. We did get two ground balls, right, and plays that whether or not Vaughn should have gone home or not, there was an out to get there. And then a clear out on the Hoerner ground ball. So that’s just how we behave strategically.”
The Cubs added another run in the seventh on a defensive miscue by the White Sox. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a pop up to shallow right field, but second baseman Josh Rojas, first baseman Andrew Vaughn, and right fielder Joshua Palacios all couldn’t track it down on a windy day. A blooper dropped in right-center field in the eighth inning, too, and three runs came in to score later in the inning.
On Sunday, the White Sox were on the wrong end of two more close plays that helped decide the game. Right fielder Michael A. Taylor tried to throw out Pete Crow-Armstrong at second, but his throw was a bit late. After fielding Taylor’s throw, Meidroth tried to throw out Brujan at home, but he snuck his hand to home plate before Edgar Quero’s tag could get there. The call stood after review, giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
“Good base running. Heads-up base running,” Venable said. “Kind of a tough spot where you’re trying to get the ball in as an outfielder. Going to second base there is alright. And I thought Chase did a good job being heads up and getting it home and just beat him there. Tough play and credit to them for a good heads-up base running play. … Got the ball in well and turned and made a nice relay home. It was one of those plays where really good athletes on the bases for them made a good baseball play.”
The Cubs added to their lead after a fielding error by left fielder Brooks Baldwin put runners on second and third. In the next two at-bats, two more runs scored on a Seiya Suzuki sacrifice fly and a Michael Busch single. The White Sox had played clean baseball for most of the season, but this weekend at Wrigley was an outlier.
“You see guys who have been in this league for a long time struggling with these elements and this is a tough place to play even without the wind and sun,” Venable said. “It’s just one of those things as these guys get more experienced they’ll be more comfortable but it’s tough for everybody.”
White Sox starter Sean Burke gave a blunt assessment of his command after Saturday’s 7-3 loss.
“It was awful. It was terrible,” Burke said. “My last two starts, it’s been terrible. You can’t go out there and walk five people and expect to have good results.”
Saturday marked the second straight start in which Burke walked five batters, and he pitched fewer than five innings in each outing. He didn’t walk any batters in his first two starts, but over his last nine outings and 37.2 innings, he’s walked 27.
Burke said his delivery has felt out of whack for the last two week or so, and finding consistency with it is going to be his main focus going forward. That’s also negatively affecting his strikeout rate, having struck out just 27 batters in 48 innings. That ratio is a significant drop off from his 103 strikeouts in 71.2 innings with the White Sox and in Triple-A last season. He credits that to his lack of command, which has made it difficult to get ahead of hitters.
“Stuff was fine. It was just command, falling behind guys,” Burke said. “I really don’t even think they put too many good swings on the ball other than that Dansby Swanson home run. Make the work harder on myself just walking guys. It can’t really happen.”
