Only in Chicago

We don’t do World Series in Chicago too often, usually a hundred years or so per team.  But the Crosstown Classic is a whole different animal.  Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano, A.J. Pierzynski—this has been your stage.  Rarely do fans go home disappointed.

The two games at Wrigley Field this week have been nothing short of Crosstown-classic.  The White Sox took the first game 3-1 on home runs by Adam Engel and Matt Davidson, whose shot to left field travelled an estimated 476 feet.  Yesterday was all Cubs, 7-2, and all weird, as in Carlos Rodon of the Sox striking out 11 of the 12 batters he faced; never has a ballgame featured a strike zone as mammoth as the one home plate umpire Lance Barksdale staked out on Tuesday.  How big?  So big that mild-mannered, gee-whiz, by-golly Kris Bryant got tossed for the first time in his career after arguing with Barksdale over a called third strike. Bryant had gone down swinging the two times previous (mixed in with a foul ball off a knee), so it wasn’t exactly his day.

Too bad I can’t say the same for Cubs’ starter John Lackey, who hit Sox hitters four times, and Jose Abreu twice.  Of course, he wasn’t trying to.  In postgame comments, Lackey all but blamed Matt Davidson and Yoan Moncada for getting in the way.  The really fun part of it is how Sox announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson reacted after Lackey loaded the bases on hit batsmen:  “That’s enough of that, Lackey!  That’s enough of that BS.”  Hawk demanded retaliation, and got it when Sox reliever Chris Beck plunked Ian Happ in the right thigh, though that might’ve been Option B in his book.  Hawk thought it might be better if the Sox—one or more, he didn’t specify—waited for Lackey after the game.  “That way, no one could break it up.”  Hey, we’re not the City of Brotherly Love here.

Speaking of Davidson, he seems to have become incredibly relaxed after the trade of Todd Frazier to the Yankees.  Speaking of Frazier, I saw him do something against the Reds I had no idea was possible—he grounded into a triple play while a run scored.  The bases were loaded, and Frazier hit the ball to short.  For some reason, the runner on second didn’t go all the way to third and was caught in a rundown.  Only in New York.  Too bad the Yankees won.