White Sox give Cubs a booming wake-up call in rivalry smackdown
In 2005, Teinowitz was in Houston with his radio show when the Sox finished off a four-game sweep of the Astros in the World Series. According to Teinowitz, when Jerry Reinsdorf saw him after the game, the first thing he did was needle him about the Cubs.
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So if you're wondering why Reinsdorf is hanging onto the Sox for more years despite an agreement to sell, maybe a sliver of the reason is for nights like Friday when the Sox absolutely embarrassed their crosstown rivals at a most inopportune time.
I hope Jerry lit a victory cigar because those haven't gotten much burn in the past few years.
It was a smoke 'em if you got 'em kind of night for the White Sox, who destroyed the Cubs 12-5 in front of a lively bipartisan crowd on the South Side.
The Sox had lost eight straight and 10 of 11 to the Cubs. Some would say they were due.
Chase Meidroth slugs a leadoff homer 😤 pic.twitter.com/vKpw4g4x57
— MLB (@MLB) July 25, 2025
And as much as we try to build it up every year, we all know the importance of Cubs-Sox has waned significantly since the feistier days of the rivalry, but we can call this a statement win for tried-and-true Sox fans, who have suffered through an abysmal four-year stretch since that rare playoff appearance in 2021.
The Sox (38-66) have won six of seven since the All-Star break, none sweeter than this one.
For the Cubs (60-43), the pain of this loss had nothing to do with the opponent. It was both a missed opportunity and a poor effort in all facets of the game.
The first-place Brewers lost earlier in the day, so the Cubs not only blew a chance to even up the NL Central, but they also weren't even competitive as Shota Imanaga got rocked, the defense struggled and the hitters were somnolent until the game was out of reach.
The Sox led 11-0 until Cubs catcher Reese McGuire's three-run homer in the seventh.
If I were general manager Chris Getz, I would have called down and banned starter Adrian Houser from even coming out for that inning. He had just thrown 60 pitches in six scoreless innings against one of the most feared lineups in the game. He's their biggest trade chip. What else did he have to prove?
Houser, who left the game one batter after giving up the homer, still has a 2.10 ERA. With a minimal salary, he could be one of the biggest steals at the deadline, and Getz has a potential buyer in Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who should be the busiest shopper in baseball.
This is a Cubs team in desperate need of a blockbuster trade deadline, especially on the pitching front. Hoyer might need to get his team two starting pitchers, two relievers, a third baseman and a pinch hitter.
And trust me, his core players are just as interested as the rest of you in what's going to happen in the next week. They know they need help for the stretch run and in October. It couldn't be more evident.
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The Cubs have dropped four of five, which is about as bad of a run as they've had all season. They'll likely have another bullpen game Sunday before going to Milwaukee for a big three-game series, given that there are only eight games left between the teams.
With everything at stake, I can't imagine Hoyer is sleeping well. What happened Friday night didn't help.
The Sox have been hitting everything since the All-Star break, a small sample size that still had its boosters in a tizzy, and they shelled Imanaga from the second pitch he threw, which was a Chase Meidroth leadoff homer to left field. Imanaga gave up a homer to rookie Colson Montgomery in the second.
COLSON MONTGOMERY FOR THE THIRD STRAIGHT GAME 🤯 pic.twitter.com/8rA0XGnIpn
— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) July 26, 2025
Imanaga was charged with seven runs on 12 hits, including three homers, in three innings. The Sox added another four runs off Imanaga's replacement, Chris Flexen, who started for their cursed 2024 team.
Imanaga's velocity was down and his location wasn't sharp. He didn't walk a batter, but the Sox were feasting off him in the zone. He gave up 12 hits, most of which were pretty well-struck.
This was Imanaga's sixth start since he missed nearly two months with a hamstring strain and it was by far his worst. As the Sox battered him, I was sure he was hurt or had a blister or something to explain it. But he said after the game that wasn't the case. He just stunk.
'Post-injury, the velo has been a little lower than usual, so that's something I need to work on, and physically, condition-wise, there's stuff I need to improve on as well,' he said through an interpreter.
'It just shows the fine line of pitching in the big leagues and what success and struggles look like,' manager Craig Counsell said. 'It's hard to believe that's the pitcher you saw the last two times make a start.'
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For the Cubs, it seems like we've been talking about the trade deadline since we realized they really were good back in the spring, and now it's almost here, and maybe it's not just about supplementing the roster as Hoyer has stressed. This team needs help.
They came to the South Side to try to get another sweep over their rivals. But what they got Friday night was a wake-up call, and it was as loud as the fireworks they set off after a Sox victory.
(Photo of Chase Meidroth: Matt Marton / Imagn Images)
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Mizuhara capitalized on the language barrier to keep Ohtani's financial advisers from understanding their client, and at times, Mizuhara even impersonated the player to the bank to prolong the fraud. — In April 2024, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA after a league probe found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and wagered on games, even betting on the Raptors to lose. In making the announcement, Commissioner Adam Silver called Porter's actions 'blatant.' The investigation started once the league learned from 'licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets' about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter's performance in a game on March 20 against Sacramento. The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior to that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million. — In June 2024, San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned for life by MLB for betting on baseball. MLB said Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 with a legal sportsbook in 2022 and 2023. The 24-year-old Venezuelan with 149 games of major league experience became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling. Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly was also suspended for one year for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues, and three minor leaguers also were banned for one year for betting on big league games: pitchers Jay Groome of San Diego and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona, and infielder José Rodríguez of Philadelphia. Each of those four players wagered under $1,000. Saalfrank and Rodríguez played previously in the majors. — In February 2025, umpire Pat Hoberg was fired by MLB for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages pertinent to the league's investigation. While MLB said the probe did not uncover evidence Hoberg personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill recommended on May 24, 2024 that Hoberg be fired. Commissioner Rob Manfred he upheld Hill's decision. Among the highest-rated umpires at judging the strike zone, Hoberg could apply for reinstatement no earlier than 2026 spring training. MLB said the friend made 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2023, totaling almost $214,000 with an overall win of nearly $35,000. That included eight bets involving games where Hoberg was working. — In June/July 2025, MLB placed Cleveland Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase on paid leave as part of a sports betting investigation. The Ortiz probe is related to in-game prop bets on two pitches thrown by the right-hander that received higher activity than usual during his starts at Seattle on June 15 and against St. Louis on June 27. The gambling activity on the pitches was flagged by a betting-integrity firm and forwarded to MLB. Clase was placed on leave more than three weeks after Ortiz. 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