“Mercy”—

--as Hawk Harrelson used to say. The Cubs and White Sox played twelve agonizingly ugly innings yesterday, stranding forty-nine (!) runners between them before Jake Burger drove in Danny Mendick for a 5-4 Sox win. Dylan Cease threw seven innings, giving up but one run, unearned. Marcus Stroman went seven scoreless innings, only to be let down by his bullpen. The only way the Sox could score during the first nine innings was when ex-Sox David Robertson hurled a wild pitch with the tying run on third. Somebody explain to me why a run-scoring wild pitch is an earned run but a run scoring on a pitcher’s error isn’t. Anyway, two mediocre teams kept trading runs in extra innings until things came to a merciful end. Did I mention that Tim Anderson had to leave the game in the fifth with a groin injury? Yup. So much for Tony La Russa’s plan of resting his star shortstop, and so much for the Sox going in a different direction with conditioning. Maybe body mass index isn’t it’s all cracked up to be, guys. Anderson is expected to go on the IL; Eloy Jimenez had a setback in coming back from his leg injury. Yoan Moncada has been ouch-ie since spring training. This team is playing under a bad sign. Mercy. Please.