Cubs drop sweep against Padres with 8-7 loss
Luis Arraez had four hits, Fernando Tatis Jr. scored the go-ahead run in the ninth inning when first baseman Justin Turner couldn't make the catch to finish a double play, and the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 8-7 on Sunday.
The Padres' Gavin Sheets singled off Porter Hodge to tie it in the eighth.
Jackson Merrill homered for the Padres, who had lost two straight after opening the season with seven consecutive victories for the best start in franchise history.
Kyle Tucker homered and drove in three runs and Nico Hoerner added three hits for the Cubs, whose five-game win streak ended.
Ryan Pressly (0-1) took the loss after allowing one hit and a walk in the ninth. Robert Suarez threw a perfect ninth for his fourth save.
The Padres went ahead 3-0 in the first inning. Ben Brown allowed two walks and a bunt single before hitting Jake Cronenworth to bring in a run. Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield single and Jason Heyward walked to score the other runs.
The Cubs scored five runs in the bottom of the first. After Kyle Hart issued two walks, Tucker singled, Justin Turner had a sacrifice fly and Hoerner doubled to tie it. Logan Gillaspie, called up from Triple-A El Paso before the game, replaced Hart and was called for two balks while pitching to Carson Kelly, scoring two runs.
Tucker hit a two-run homer in the second inning for his fifth, tied for the NL lead.
Merrill drove a two-run shot off Brown in the fourth.
With runners on first and second in the ninth, Manny Machado hit a grounder to shortstop. Dansby Swanson threw to second to start the try for a double play, but Hoerner's relay to first got past Turner. That allowed Tatis to come around to score.
Tucker, acquired in a December trade with Houston, now has 15 RBIs to lead the NL.
The Padres had yet to announce their starter for Monday's series opener against the A's.
LHP Justin Steele (2-1, 6.89 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday for the Cubs against Texas. RHP Nathan Eovaldi (1-0, 1.20) is slated to pitch for the Rangers.
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Crede had a .949 OPS in the 2005 playoffs with four homers and 11 RBIs. The Hawkeroo will toast to this pick. Carlos Quentin had the best single season of any left fielder in the 2000s with a 5.3 WAR in 2008 (and that's with missing the last month of the season). Scott Podsednik was the straw that stirred the Sox's drink in 2005. But it's the guy who was traded for Podsednik — in the deal that got used as an example of the 'culture change' that Ozzie Guillen wanted — who wins this honor based on actual production. (Yes, I know I used the opposite argument for Uribe.) Because from 2000-04, Lee had a .287/.344/.493 slash line, hitting 136 homers and driving in 468 runs. He was really good, if not the right person for Guillen's lineup at the time. When Theo Epstein traded Eloy Jiménez to the Sox, he comped him to 'El Caballo,' but the oft-injured Jiménez never came close to capturing Lee's production. 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Adam Eaton had a better bWAR (16.2) in four seasons with the Sox than Robert does (14.4) in five-plus seasons. Shoot, maybe Eaton should've won this honor? From 2000-04, Ordoñez made three of his four All-Star Games as a Sox (he made two more with Detroit) and put up a .313/.376/.550 slash line with 139 homers and 510 RBIs. He was a star and another White Sox inductee into the Hall of Very Good. The Sox let Ordońez go after the 2004 season and he signed a five-year, $75 million deal with Detroit that included two option years, one of which was picked up for $18 million. Nineteen years later, the Sox finally gave their own five-year, $75 million deal to a free agent outfielder. (Don't ask.) Jermaine Dye, the Sox's World Series MVP, finishes second here. You have Jim Thome, who hit 134 homers, had 369 RBIs and put up a .933 OPS in 529 games in three-plus seasons with the Sox — and also hit the solo homer in the 1-0 2008 division tiebreaker win over the Twins at The Cell — and of course you have Frank Thomas (more on him below). There's also, uh, Adam Dunn. Advertisement But while he never played more than 39 games at DH, Abreu obviously deserves to be on this team for his production over nine years in Chicago. Abreu, the regular first baseman from 2014 through 2022, made three All-Star teams, won Rookie of the Year in 2014 and the AL MVP in the shortened 2020 season. He put up 31.3 bWAR and hit 243 homers and 863 RBIs for the Sox. I'm actually surprised there aren't more pictures of him around the ballpark. When does he get his statue? You can't do an All-Sox team without Frank Thomas, the franchise's all-time best hitter. From 2000-05, after his Hall of Fame peak, he still hit 147 homers and drove in 425 runs in 588 games and he barely played in 2001 and 2005. In that last year, he started the season rehabbing from an offseason ankle surgery and then was lost to foot surgery in late July. Still, he somehow managed 12 homers in just 105 at-bats. He wasn't on the playoff roster, which was a shame, but he still enjoyed the World Series run. The next year in Oakland, he finished fourth in AL MVP voting en route to a first-ballot Hall of Fame nod. He's currently selling an eponymous vodka and appearing in those cringey Nugenix commercials. One thing the White Sox did in this era was produce pitchers. Somewhere Don Cooper is smiling. Our starting five has four left-handers. We're leaving out Lucas Giolito, José Contreras (who was basically the best pitcher in baseball from the second half of 2005 through the first half of 2006), Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland, among others. Buehrle was one of the most effective (and efficient) pitchers of his era and one of the all-time best Sox starters (48.9 bWAR, 161 wins, 3.83 ERA, nearly 2,500 innings in 12 seasons), which is why he's still getting Hall of Fame votes and a statue at The Rate this summer. Sale was the franchise's best draft pick since Thomas. He went 74-50 with an even 3.00 ERA in 228 games (148 starts) for the Sox, striking out 1,244 in 1,110 innings. He was in the top six of Cy Young Award voting for his last five seasons with the Sox, making the All-Star team each time. His trade to Boston after the 2016 season started the team's ill-fated rebuild — and it was obvious then and now that the Sox's failure to build around him and Quintana was an organizational failure. He should be Cooperstown-bound with a strong finish to his career. Advertisement You don't have to say 'What about Danks?' because he made the list. The lefty is just behind Sale in career strikeouts for the franchise. Quintana had 21.2 WAR in six seasons before being dealt in a crosstown blockbuster to the Cubs for Cease, who finished second for the AL Cy Young in 2022. Cease, the lone right-hander, had a 3.83 ERA and 792 strikeouts in 658 innings for the Sox. He pitched in 346 games with the Sox and 209 of them came between 2000-02. Foulke had a 2.74 ERA and 87 saves, striking out 224 in 246 2/3 innings. He wasn't a setup guy, but he'll do just fine. Who else? Jenks is second all-time in saves in Sox history at 173 (Bobby Thigpen is first with 201) and he had 334 strikeouts in 341 2/3 innings. The best closers have what the kids today call 'aura' and Jenks was thick with it. After coming up during the 2005 season as a golden ticket of a waiver claim, Jenks started pumping triple-digit fastballs in an era where that wasn't commonplace. In the post-Jordan era of Chicago sports, I'd put Jenks, despite being a heavyset dude with a goatee, among the most electric athletes we had, right up there with Javy Báez, Patrick Kane and Derrick Rose. He was like a folk hero. As you might've read, Jenks is currently battling stomach cancer in Portugal. Da Pope. The Sox fan formerly known as Robert Prevost sneaks past Donn Pall for the honor. Last year, the Sox had the milkshake as the distraction for an awful season. This season, it's the pope. I love that the White Sox, the team perennially slept on by the national media, can count a Pope and a President among its fans. Obama proudly wore his Sox gear as a Senator and as the President and gave the franchise some needed cachet after they stopped winning. Guillen was the shortstop of the 1990s, a Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star with the gift of gab. His hiring before the 2004 season was one of Williams and Reinsdorf's best moves. The White Sox went 678-617 in Guillen's eight seasons in charge, with five winning seasons. Their 11-1 romp through the 2005 playoffs looked dominant but included a host of close games. Seven of those wins were decided by one or two runs, including all four games of a World Series sweep. Advertisement Guillen should still be managing somewhere, but he's turned into the best studio analyst in the city, the Charles Barkley of White Sox games. I would love to hear Ozzie the analyst critique Ozzie the manager's moves after a game. (Photo of Mark Buehrle, A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko after Buehrle pitched a complete game against the Cubs in 2006: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
