Cubs Take Advantage of Poor White Sox and Set Franchise Record in Win

I'm not gonna pretend like the Cubs are close to being a good team, but I know one thing for sure, the 2023 White Sox stink and the Cubs took advantage of that Tuesday night en route to a 7-3 win. Poor Yasmani Grandal had no chance against base runners and the Cubs offense blasted four home runs against White Sox pitching. At the end of the night, the Cubs ended up setting a franchise record in their win on the South Side.

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson clobbered a two-run homer in the second inning on a 0-2 fastball from Michael Kopech. The two-run blast came after a Tim Anderson error allowed Seiya Suzuki to reach safely to begin the inning. Christopher Morel then followed with a solo homer and the Cubs quickly took a 3-0 lead.

Swanson wasn't done, though, as he homered for the second time in as many at-bats against Kopech Tuesday night.

You know who else hit more home runs on Tuesday than Tim Anderson has in more than a year? Nico Hoerner, who jumped all over a hanging breaking ball from reliever Jesse Scholtens to leadoff the seventh inning.

The Cubs middle infield led the way on offense, as Swanson ended up going 3-for-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R, with a walk, while Hoerner went 3-for-5, 1 HR and 2 R. Hoerner also stole two bases and as a team the Cubs went 5-for-5 on the night stealing second base against Grandal, who was behind the plate for the White Sox.

Ian Happ, Miles Mastrobuoni and Seiya Suzuki each had one stolen base in addition to Hoerner's pair. For the first time in the modern era, the Cubs hit at least four home runs and stole at least five bases in the same game.

Incredible, but not all surprising coming against these White Sox.

Kopech, who made his 19th start of the season, had allowed 19 home runs in 92.1 innings coming into Tuesday. The righty had the 7th highest home run rate out of 81 starting pitchers with at least 90 innings pitched. Meanwhile, everyone has been running on Grandal this year, as he entered the game allowing 66 stolen bases on 77 attempts. That's an 86% success rate stealing against the 34-year-old backstop this season.

One more thing about Hoerner. The Cubs second baseman is now up to 24 stolen bases this season, ranking third-most in the National League and sixth-most among all players in MLB. He's only been caught three times.

Hoerner had a great all-around game and in the fifth inning he used his speed to beat Oscar Colas' throw from shallow right field. It was a nice slide by Hoerner, but it was also another rough play for Grandal, who couldn't get the tag down in time, despite the throw beating Hoerner by plenty.

The Cubs have now won four games in a row and have pulled within two games of the .500 mark with a 49-51 record.