As the media huddled around his locker in Wrigley Field\u2019s underground home clubhouse, Crow-Armstrong raised his eyes, chuckled and shook his head at the totality of the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just really good for the city,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cYou got a second-place team in us, but a first-place team in them, and it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve been really competitive in a while. It\u2019s just really frickin\u2019 cool that we get to put that product out on the field together and go compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fights in the stands are unfortunate and somewhat nauseating. But you got people in the stands competing, too. Aside from that, all jokes aside, too, it\u2019s really good for the city having both of us playing the kind of baseball we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the North Side, the anti-Green Bay chant mixed in with the frequent calls for \u201cP-C-A\u201d and \u201cM-V-P\u201d during a back-and-forth game that lasted three hours, 21 minutes and featured 10 pitchers. The White Sox went 4-for-33 with eight walks and 14 strikeouts \u2014 and their defense committed two errors \u2014 yet they still held a one-run lead entering the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
White Sox manager Will Venable, who spent three seasons as a well-respected coach on the Cubs\u2019 major-league staff (2018-20), described Monday\u2019s atmosphere as \u201cprobably the biggest, most intense and kind of crazy environment on the road that we\u2019ve experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was over the top and exciting and a great representation of Chicago sports,\u201d Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. \u201cTwo great teams playing well on a beautiful summer night at Wrigley is kind of as good as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time the Bears played the Packers, reports surfaced that the Cubs had reached an agreement with All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman on a five-year, $175 million contract. On that January night, right around the same time Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams started directing an epic comeback playoff win over the Green Bay at Soldier Field, the Cubs sent a clear signal that they were planning for October baseball at the Friendly Confines.<\/p>\n
No such expectations followed the rebuilding White Sox, an organization that set a major-league record with 121 losses in 2024 and finished last season with a 60-102 record. But Cubs and White Sox fans could be in playoff mode when the Bears next play at Lambeau Field on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n
A young, confident team has taken advantage of the weakened state of the American League, seeing the results from forward-looking trades, solid draft picks and the smart investment in Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all really important games and moments for them to experience,\u201d Venable said. \u201cHopefully, it serves us well. Hopefully, there\u2019s big plays and big opportunities for these guys to have the experience. And I think every time you go through that, you learn a little more and you get better for the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-19T050556Z_426063551_MT1USATODAY29616386_RTRMADP_3_MLB-CHICAGO-WHITE-SOX-AT-CHICAGO-CUBS-sca.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Alex Bregman won it the ninth on Tuesday after he hit a tying single in the seventh inning. (Patrick Gorski \/ Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n
The White Sox gained more exposure the hard way Tuesday night when Bregman\u2019s ninth-inning base hit<\/a> handed them another\u00a0walk-off loss. Patrick Kane, the three-time Stanley Cup winner now back with the Blackhawks, threw out a ceremonial first pitch. Matas Buzelis, the young Bulls forward who grew up in the Chicago area, was shown on the video board for the crowd of 40,304.<\/p>\n Crow-Armstrong blasted another leadoff home run<\/a>, this time off White Sox opener Bryan Hudson, a one-time Cubs prospect who also gave up a homer to Michael Busch in the first inning. Murakami launched his 29th home run off the massive screen above the left-field bleachers<\/a>. Someone threw the ball back onto the field, per tradition.<\/p>\n New Cubs starter Kevin Gausman, one of several pitching reinforcements acquired before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, gave up three runs across 4 1\/3 innings before exiting with a cramp in his left\/non-throwing hand.<\/p>\n During the seventh inning, fans brought back the \u201cGreen Bay sucks\u201d chants and some added \u201cLet\u2019s go, White Sox!\u201d Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, a Blackhawks legend and frequent Wrigley Field visitor, led the crowd in singing \u201cTake Me Out To The Ball Game.\u201d And Bregman, who\u2019s showing why he was such a coveted free agent, preceded his game-winning heroics with a two-out RBI single to left that tied the score at 3-3.<\/p>\n At 9:47 p.m., the grounds crew frantically began rolling out the tarp, preparing for a rain delay that lasted one hour, 28 minutes. Shirtless dudes flooded the VIP seats behind home plate, chanting \u201cU-S-A\u201d during a \u201cTarps Off\u201d demonstration while ABBA\u2019s \u201cDancing Queen\u201d blared from the ballpark\u2019s sound system.<\/p>\n Once play resumed, Cubs closer Jacob Webb maintained order, extending his scoreless streak to 23 appearances. The Cubs are clearly comfortable in these situations. Carson Kelly led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a double, and a half-empty stadium booed Venable\u2019s decision to intentionally walk Crow-Armstrong with one out. The game finally ended at 11:36 p.m. with Bregman\u2019s second two-out hit. The next crosstown pitch is scheduled for Wednesday at 1:20 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve only been in Chicago for a little bit, but that\u2019s kind of the first question that people ask: \u2018Are you a Cubs or a Sox fan?\u2019\u201d Gausman said. \u201cThey kind of treat you based on how you answer, but I respect it. That\u2019s the cool thing about having two teams in one city. That rivalry is always going to be big, and the fans are always going to want great games when they match up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 As the jam-packed crowd of 40,354 marched toward the Wrigley Field exits late Monday night, still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5158,5256,591,85],"class_list":["post-860721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}