The Chicago White Sox are one of the hottest teams in baseball heading into the Crosstown Classic on Friday night against the visiting Chicago Cubs.
The White Sox completed a three-game sweep of Kansas City on Thursday — after going 4-22 against the Royals the past two seasons — and are on their second five-game winning streak of 2026.
The White Sox, at 22-21, are at .500 or better this late in the season for the first time since the final day of the 2022 campaign, when they were 81-81. After three consecutive 100-loss seasons, the White Sox are in second place in the American League Central, one game behind the Cleveland Guardians.
Chicago is getting offense from an unlikely source.
Randal Grichuk, signed by the White Sox on May 4 after the New York Yankees designated him for assignment, drove in four runs Thursday with a two-run home run and a two-run single in a 6-2 victory over the Royals.
Now 34 and in his 13th major league season, Grichuk has three home runs in 15 at-bats with Chicago.
“I love that guy,” said Chase Meidroth, who also had two hits, an RBI and a run in the victory Thursday. “He is great in the clubhouse. He spreads a lot of knowledge to the young guys.”
The White Sox will start Sean Burke (2-3, 3.68 ERA) on Friday. The right-hander is coming off a tough outing against the Seattle Mariners in which he gave up six earned runs on six hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings of a 12-8 loss last Friday.
Thanks to a day off in the schedule on Monday, the 26-year-old got an extra day of rest before he’ll face the Cubs.
Before his start against the Mariners, Burke had three straight quality starts, giving up just two earned runs in 19 1/3 innings.
Now in his third season with the White Sox, Burke has appeared in 40 games (31 starts), going 4-8 with a 3.83 ERA. He is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in two appearances (one start) against the Cubs.
The Cubs, who lead the National League Central, will counter with right-hander Edward Cabrera (3-1, 3.88 ERA).
Cabrera has gone at least five innings in all eight of his starts this season. He is coming off his roughest outing of the season, however — a 6-0 loss to the Texas Rangers last Saturday. He gave up seven hits, including two home runs, and five earned runs in five innings.
The Cubs are 6-2 in games in which the 28-year-old Cabrera pitches. This will be his 96th career start, and he has a 28-30 record and a 4.05 ERA.
Cabrera is 0-0 with a 3.12 ERA in two career starts against the White Sox. He has given up three runs in 8 2/3 innings.
The Cubs snapped a four-game losing streak that followed a 10-game winning streak by beating the Atlanta Braves 2-0 on Thursday. The offense came to life a bit in the game with six hits after totaling only 13 in the previous four games.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said he isn’t too dismayed by the offense.
“I think we are having good at-bats. They are just not ending up as hits,” he said. “They are ending up in walks, and some long at-bats are ending up as outs. That just means we are missing some pitches that we probably should be hitting. The batted ball luck has kind of gone the other way against us, and it adds up to some tough offensive games.”
–Field Level Media
