Diary of a Chicago Sports Fan

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Cubs looked fatigued, Sox lose and Blackhawks tell their Darling good bye

As I write this, the Red Sox lead the Cubs 6-2 in the bottom of the 8^th inning. Kyle Hendricks gave up a 2 run homer to Hanly Ramirez in the first, but that was all he allowed in 6 innings of work. It was only the Cubs 9^th quality start in 24 games. Hendricks velocity has been down, but he has worked around it in his last two starts.

This guys looked tired

The wheels can off in the bottom of the 8^th for the Cubs. The Red Sox started a rally on a routine groundball to first when Marco Hernandez beat Koji Uehara to the bag. A couple of more hits and Uehara was gone. Pedro Stope came on got a couple of guys out but gave up a wild pitch allowing a run to score. An Addison Russell throwing error allowed 2 more runs to score. It was a ball Rizzo would usually pick out of the dirt.

Kris Bryant seems to like Fenway

The Cubs got a run on a long Kris Bryant homer in the 5^th. The Cubs got their second run when John Jay scored from second on a wild pitch. John Jay has proven to be an excellent pickup for the Cubs this season.

A couple of quick notes on the Cubs. Both Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber are off to slow starts with the bat. Baez is much more of a concern than Schwarber. Schwarber is at least showing discipline. Baez seemed to regress

It was nice while it lasted

The White Sox had their 6 game winning streak broken with a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Sox starter, Miguel Gonzalez who had been extremely sharp in previous starts, got lit up for 7 runs and 14 hits in 6 innings. Beyond that there's not much of a story line.

Jose Abreu continues to swing a hot stick getting 2 hits, including a RBI triple. Todd Frazier also continued his warming trend, going 1-3. The one was a homer. Frazier has gotten his average up to .183 and his OPS up to .703. That might not seem like a lot, but considering where he was a couple of weeks ago, those numbers are good news.

Is Ryan Pace the Blackhawks gm too?

In a move that went down a few days ago, the Blackhawks traded backup goaltender, Scott Darling, to the Carolina Hurricanes for a third round pick. I'm not wild about the move. I would like to have seen the Hawks sign Darling and trade Corey Crawford. I'm not down on Crawford, but figure Darling would be cheaper. The Hawks talk like a team wanting to make a move, but bloated contracts with no trade clauses will make that hard to do.

More next time.