{"id":1010334,"date":"2026-08-19T07:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010334\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:41:21","slug":"city-series-chicago-cubs-walk-off-white-sox-a-second-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010334\/","title":{"rendered":"City Series: Chicago Cubs walk off White Sox a second night"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago White Sox were not going to let Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong walk them off for a second straight night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boos from the Cubs fans among the 40,034 fans<\/a> greeted the Sox\u2019s decision to intentionally walk Crow-Armstrong with one out in the bottom of the ninth. That choice, after Crow-Armstrong went deep again<\/a> to open Tuesday\u2019s game, ultimately set up Alex Bregman to be the Cubs\u2019 hero.<\/p>\n

Having already come through in the seventh to tie the game on an RBI single, Bregman replicated the moment. He attacked a first-pitch fastball from Sox reliever Trevor Richards to drive in Carson Kelly \u2014 following Kelly\u2019s double to begin the ninth \u2014 for a 4-3 walk-off victory.<\/p>\n

In his last 21 games entering Tuesday, Bregman posted a .357 average with nine doubles, six home runs, 17 RBIs and a 1.104 OPS while leading MLB in hits and extra-base hits in that span.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou love it \u2014 sometimes you\u2019re going to fail in them, but you want them every single time, and eventually you keep putting yourself in those spots and you keep getting those opportunities, you\u2019re going to come through,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cFortunate enough to put a good swing on it today. I thought Carson did the hard part by getting into scoring position there to lead off the inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman drives in the game-winning run on a walk-off single in the ninth inning of a game against the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Aug. 18, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

A 1-hour, 28-minute rain delay paused play in the middle of the eighth inning in a tied game. The Cubs (74-53) secured their major-league-leading 13th walk-off win, tying the 2015 team for their most in a season within the last 90 years. They overcame starter Kevin Gausman<\/a> having to depart during the fifth inning because of cramping in his left thumb\/hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot, and it just kind of goes to show how special this team is, how special these guys are,\u201d Gausman said of the walk-off wins. \u201cThey always believe in each other, and when you have that, it\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs struck first against the Sox\u2019s lefty opener Bryan Hudson. They came into Tuesday with MLB\u2019s best offense against lefties, and the Cubs\u2019 top two lefty sluggers quickly added to that production as Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch hit solo home runs off Hudson.<\/p>\n

Erick Fedde, pitching in bulk for the Sox<\/a> (65-60), didn\u2019t allow a run in 4 2\/3 innings. He held the Cubs to three hits, struck out five and walked two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just had a good game plan,\u201d Fedde said. \u201cDid a good job of throwing inside today and tying some of the big hitters up and just kind of opened up some other stuff away and some things went my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sox reliever Huascar Brazob\u00e1n<\/a> cleaned up Fedde\u2019s traffic in the sixth by forcing Ian Happ to fly out to strand two runners. Brazob\u00e1n ran into trouble to begin the seventh, though, after walking Miguel Amaya and Michael Conforto on nine pitches. Sox manager Will Venable called on his tough righty Grant Taylor for the top of the Cubs\u2019 lineup, and Taylor responded by striking out Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Bregman, locked in since the All-Star break, came through to tie the game with his two-out, two-strike RBI single.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs starting pitcher Kevin Gausman deals with a hand issue in the fourth inning of a game against the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Aug. 18, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Although Gausman\u2019s four-seam fastball (13 called strikes) and splitter (15 whiffs) yielded some productive results, the veteran left too many hittable pitches around the plate. Three consecutive two-out singles resulted in the Sox\u2019s first run on Drew Romo\u2019s RBI single in the second. Gausman opened the following inning by getting ahead of Murakami, 0-2, but followed with three straight balls and the Sox\u2019s slugger unloaded on a low fastball. Murakami\u2019s hit was 111.1 mph the opposite way off the left-center field videoboard for a game-tying 406-foot home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we battled and got out of some tough spots,\u201d Gausman said, \u201cbut not necessarily as sharp as I would have liked to have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox got to Gausman again in the fourth, thanks to Tristan Peters\u2019 RBI double.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough finish, but again just really proud of the guys for continuing to battle there,\u201d Venable said. \u201cAgain, two homers in the first inning and behind the eight ball to start and our guys just never stopped battling. I thought Fedde was amazing today, what he did, especially with where we\u2019re at, to be able to get that coverage and perform like he did was just awesome. He gave us a chance to win that game. Tough result again, but just a really good job by the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gausman\u2019s hand cramp initially popped up during the fourth when his left thumb became locked in an awkward position, prompting a mound visit from Counsell and head trainer Nick Frangella. After several minutes, Gausman threw a few pitches and stayed in the game. He struck out Sam Antonacci to end the inning and returned for the fifth. However, Gausman only made it through two Sox hitters \u2014 striking out Murakami and allowing a single to Miguel Vargas \u2014 before the cramp again bothered him to the point of exiting the game following a brief conversation with Counsell and Frangella.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs relief pitcher Javier Assad celebrates as he is taken out of the game in the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Aug. 18, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thumb, kind of couldn\u2019t even put it in my glove there in the fourth before I got some electrolytes in me, and felt fine to start the next inning,\u201d Gausman explained. \u201cFirst pitch to Murakami I felt it, and then the last pitch to Vargas it kind of locked up on me again.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty frustrating to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst start here as a Cub. Obviously, not what I\u2019m trying to do. Only the second time I think in my career that I\u2019ve left the game but just felt like I couldn\u2019t keep going, kind of couldn\u2019t grab my glove without it locking up on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

City Series photos: Cubs beat the White Sox 4-3 at Wrigley Field<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gausman said he\u2019s experienced the cramping before, though it typically doesn\u2019t occur until he gets over 100 pitches; he came out of the game at 86 pitches. He credited right-hander Javier Assad for coming in and saving the day.<\/p>\n

Assad got the unexpected appearance in relief of Gausman and gave the Cubs exactly what they needed. He tossed three shutout innings while allowing two hits, no walks and striking out two. It continued an excellent stretch by the 29-year-old, who keeps stepping up in whatever role he\u2019s given.<\/p>\n

\u201cJavy put the game back in order for us,\u201d Counsell said.<\/p>\n

Since May 1, Assad has a 2.24 ERA in 64 1\/3 innings that span 10 relief appearances, two saves, seven starts and five games finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago White Sox were not going to let Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong walk them off…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[2730,960,1271,1274,63314,1816,16076,5386,1818,63313,16755,1822,150026,1277,73146,13250,1272],"class_list":["post-1010334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-alex-bregman","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-city-series","tag-craig-counsell","tag-grant-taylor","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-javier-assad","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-walk-off","tag-will-venable","tag-wrigley-field"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117121049881975084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}