2026 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 45

TL;DR

The Cubs bounced back offensively with 14 hits and 10 runs against the White Sox, despite allowing three homers. All nine starters contributed to the scoring, helping the Cubs reclaim the top on-base percentage in the league.

Key points

Cubs had 14 hits and scored 10 runs against the White Sox
All nine Cubs starters contributed offensively
Cubs reclaimed top on-base percentage in the league
White Sox allowed three homers and used five relievers
Cubs slugged .439 compared to White Sox's .576

CubsWhite Sox

If you were concerned either that the Cub offense wouldn’t return to form or about how long it would be before it did, then Friday night was a comforting game. The pitching was a little rough around the edges. Most concerningly, they allowed three homers. But that Cub offense had 14 hits and drew six walks. The Dodgers offense had a pretty good night offensively themselves, but the Cubs output was enough to bounce back into the top on-base percentage position among major league teams.

The fun part is the White Sox slugged three homers (not fun) and managed five total runs. The Cubs four doubles among their 14 hits, but managed 10 runs. Generally the team that slugs better is a good bet to win a game, but that didn’t hold here. The Cubs only slugged .439 while the Sox were at .576. So it wasn’t even a little close. The thing is, that’s a better than average slugging percentage for the Cubs and all the more impressive when you consider that they had 48 plate appearances (though the divisor is at bats and not PA).

All nine Cub starters had hits and four of the 10 players either drew walks or were hit by a pitch. So this was a diverse and balanced offensive output. Six different Cubs scored runs and six drove in a run. Eight of the nine starters and nine players overall had either a run or run batted in. All in all, the Cubs forced Sox pitchers to make 194 pitches. We haven’t talked about that this year, but that’s the kind of thing that could potentially win an additional game later in the series. The White Sox had to use five relievers and Jordan Hicks threw 35 pitches. That could affect his availability later in the series.

It wasn’t particularly easy, but things broke loose quite a bit. Hopefully, this win carries the team through the weekend. The Saturday game was the one that Fangraphs had as the most likely Sox win of the bunch. So nothing totally unexpected in this win. But it was just what the doctor ordered, just the same. This offense tends to either be locked in or out of whack. Maybe this locks them back in. The Sox are going to score some runs with the power they have in their lineup. The general path to victory is going to be scoring a handful (or two) of runs.