Chicago White Sox: There was 1 big key to sweeping the Cubs

The Chicago White Sox swept the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. It was a great moment for everyone associated with the White Sox as they are now clearly the dominant team in Chicago. That isn’t just for baseball either. They are the best men’s pro team in the city as well. They were able to do everything right in their stadium to make sure that they didn’t lose a single game.

There were a lot of big moments in this series. Offensively, guys like Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Cesar Hernandez, Eloy Jimenez, and Tim Anderson amongst others had big performances. There were even unsung offensive heroes like Adam Engel or Brian Goodwin who are becoming well-known good hitters on this team in their own right.

With all of that said, the one key to the series was pitching. Craig Kimbrel had a tough inning in the first game but he was great in the second game. The one game that he struggled in saw his teammates pick him up just enough. Pitching is key in baseball and this team has a lot of it.

The big stat in this series is the strikeout. The White Sox pitchers combined to strike out 45 Cubs hitters this weekend. That is an insane number as they averaged 15 per game. The ball was not in play enough for the Cubs at all and the White Sox took full advantage.

The Chicago White Sox starting pitchers were brilliant for the entire weekend series.

It all started on Friday. Lance Lynn had eight strikeouts. Liam Hendriks then added four as he pitched in two innings in that one. They were the only two that recorded at least one so they ended that game with a modest 12 strikeouts.

Carlos Rodon almost matched that total on his own the very next day as he had 11. His stuff was so dominant that the Cubs were not able to do anything at all with it. Michael Kopech, Aaron Bummer, Craig Kimbrel, and Ryan Tepera all combined to add six more for 17 total in the game. That was one of the more dominant team-pitching performances that the White Sox have had in a long time.

On Sunday, with a sweep on the line, they almost matched that total from the day before. Dylan Cease was dominant with his ten strikeouts. He seems to match that total every week now but that is a story for a different day. Reynaldo Lopez and Jose Ruiz each added three to get the total to 16 on the day and 45 in the series.

The reason that the Cubs were able to only score nine runs during the entire series is obviously that the pitching was so good. Of course, it is a little easier without some of their traded pieces being there anymore but let’s not pretend that Javier Baez might drive down strikeout numbers if he were there. This was a great weekend of pitching for the White Sox and they should all be proud.