White Sox 7, Cubs 4: What’s with all the home runs?

I don’t know about you, but the less I see of Jose Abreu the rest of this season, the better.

Abreu hit three home runs and the White Sox hit five overall in a 7-4 win over the Cubs. The Sox have hit 11 home runs in the two games at Wrigley Field. The Cubs have hit 11 home runs... in their last 13 games.

What the...

Kyle Hendricks struggled early, throwing 26 pitches in a second inning that resulted in two runs for the Sox on a two-run homer by Luis Robert.

The Cubs did claw their way back into the game in the bottom of that inning. Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch and Jason Heyward walked.

Victor Caratini was the next hitter [VIDEO].

The score’s tied 2-2 and that’s all well and good but that was the Cubs’ only hit until the fifth, when Ian Happ singled with one out but was erased on an inning-ending double play. And then that was the last hit until the bottom of the eighth, when three straight hits resulted in a run. Here’s the RBI single by Contreras [VIDEO].

That run made the score 5-3 and there was a hint, just a hint, that maybe the Cubs could get back in the game, even as late as it was.

Unfortunately, the Sox weren’t done hitting home runs. With two out in the ninth, Yasmani Grandal smacked one and Abreu followed with his third of the game, both off Duane Underwood Jr. Abreu became the first visiting player to homer three times in a game at Wrigley since Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals did it July 20, 2018.

In the bottom of the ninth, Nico Hoerner walked and Jason Kipnis doubled him to third, where he scored on this groundout by Ian Happ [VIDEO].

This is what we are reduced to. The Cubs’ opponent smashes home run after home run, and I am showing you RBI groundouts. Sigh.

I don’t know what else to say. The Cubs have run into a hot team — the win was the Sox’ seventh in a row — and the Cubs offense has mostly vanished over the last 10 games, during which they’ve gone 3-7 and been outscored 54-37. I do have some confidence they can start hitting again, because they did so while running out to a 13-3 start to this season. The starting pitching, which was so good in that 16-game stretch, is also going to have to improve.

Here, have some comments from Anthony Rizzo on the offense:

What else can he say? Today’s another day.

A few comments on former Cub Sean Marshall, who filled in for the injured Jim Deshaies on the Marquee broadcast Saturday evening. Marshall was fine. He tended to talk a bit too much, get involved in some intricate description of something regarding pitching, while plays were going on. I attribute that to lack of experience more than anything else. Len Kasper is so good at trying to help lead guys like this into an appropriate discussion. Best of all, Marquee didn’t try to shove a third person in the booth with Len and Sean.

Despite the loss, the Cubs still have a three-game lead in the NL Central and the second-best record in the NL. They’ll will try to salvage the final game of this series Sunday afternoon at 1:20 p.m. CT. Yu Darvish will start for the Cubs and former Cubs minor leaguer Dylan Cease will go for the White Sox. TV coverage is via Marquee Sports Network, and also on NBC Sports Chicago with the Sox announcers.