The Chicago Cubs managed to stop their losing streak at 10 games in Pittsburgh and as a reward got to face Pirates ace Paul Skenes in Thursday’s series finale. They were able to salvage a split with a 7-2 victory.
A night game at PNC Park meant a late arrival to St. Louis, where the Cubs will face the rival Cardinals for the first time this season beginning Friday.
The Chicago White Sox likewise will see the Detroit Tigers for the first time this season when the teams meet for a three-game series at Rate Field.
Every Friday during the regular season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Cubs and White Sox.
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Jordan Wicks trying to make most of opportunity
Twenty months passed before left-hander Jordan Wicks got another chance to start for the Cubs. Although the former first-round pick appeared in eight major-league games last year, they were all out of the bullpen, largely in mop-up duty.
Tuesday’s start — Wicks’ first in the big leagues since September 2024 — didn’t go how he envisioned. The 26-year-old lefty surrendered eight runs in 4 1/3 innings, including five in the first, as the Pirates extended the Cubs losing streak to 10 games.
Wicks, though, is getting another chance with Matthew Boyd and Edward Cabrera still sidelined. He gets the ball Sunday night in St. Louis.
“I still think there’s a really good major-league pitcher in there,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said before Wicks’ start at PNC Park. “Ultimately consistency is probably one of the most important things to be a major-league pitcher. You’ve got to be able to go out and be consistent, and the team has to know what they’re getting.
“Obviously he struggled a little bit when he first came back (at Triple A), but the last couple have been good and he’s a left-hand pitcher who’s got a really good changeup, who’s generally been in the mid-90s this year. He should be effective, and I think he will be. When that happens, I’m not sure, but there’s a good major-league pitcher in there. We just have to get it out of him.”
Wicks’ start to the season was delayed in spring training because of nerve irritation that popped up in his left wrist, which required time to let the area calm down before building back up. The Cubs’ pitching injuries created this opportunity for Wicks as the organization has tapped into most of its big-league-ready starters.
“It was prohibiting me from throwing breaking balls,” Wicks said of the nerve issue, “and so obviously that provides complications when you’re throwing in a game and it was something we just didn’t want to get worse. So we felt at that time it was the smart move to just let it chill out and build up from there, and in the end that was the right move.”
Wicks needs to show more consistency Sunday against the Cardinals. He attributed too much adrenaline to Tuesday’s first-inning struggles and is confident that won’t be an issue moving forward. He also made a few mechanical tweaks while at Iowa and expects that to carry over into his next outing.
“My arm was late coming out, and so once we cleaned up some of that, it helped the command a lot,” he explained. “And once we got that cleaned up, everything shot up. I have this issue where my glove can get behind me and it keeps me from rotating, and so when we keep that tighter, it allows me to rotate more efficiently.”
‘Rare’ feats continue for Munetaka Murakami
Sox manager Will Venable described Munetaka Murakami’s solo home run Wednesday as “something that is very rare.”
The left-handed slugger followed a grand slam by Chase Meidroth with a 432-foot homer to left field during the seventh inning of the 15-2 victory against the Minnesota Twins at Rate Field.
“When he hit that ball yesterday, (Sox outfielder Randal) Grichuk made a comment to me that that was like a right-handed bomb,” Venable said Thursday. “Not just a homer but a bomb.”
It was Murakami’s 20th home run. He’s the only rookie in the modern era (since 1901) with 20-plus homers before June.
“I’m going into every single day in the same routine and having good preparation each day,” Murakami said through an interpreter after Wednesday’s game. “So I’m really glad that the continuation of that preparation is coming alive and really happy the results are coming as well.”
Murakami joined Jim Thome (2006) and Frank Thomas (1994) as the only Sox players with 20 homers before June.
“The environment where I can really focus on baseball is tremendous,” Murakami said of his first two months in the big leagues. “The facilities here, it’s really top notch, and everything around me is helping me improve as a player. So every single day I try to become a better player, improve my mechanics.”
Venable wasn’t surprised to see Murakami in that company.
“He’s just been consistently doing a lot of damage,” Venable said Wednesday. “Every day you see quality at-bats. If it’s not homers, drawing walks. Just continues to stay in good spots and stacking really productive days where it doesn’t surprise me he’s being mentioned with those guys.”
Number of the week: 18
David Sandlin on Wednesday became the first Sox pitcher over the last 100 seasons to retire 18 consecutive batters in his major-league debut. He’s the first to do it in the majors since the Pirates’ Nick Kingham retired the first 20 Cardinals batters on April 29, 2018, according to Elias.
Week ahead: Cubs
- Friday: at Cardinals, 6:15 p.m., Marquee
- Saturday: at Cardinals, 6:15 p.m., Fox-32
- Sunday: at Cardinals, 6:20 p.m., NBC-5
- Monday: off
- Tuesday: vs. Athletics, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
- Wednesday: vs. Athletics, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
- Thursday: vs. Athletics, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
Matt Shaw is making progress with his mid-back tightness. In an encouraging step, he took grounders and made throws from third base pregame Wednesday at PNC Park.
Manager Craig Counsell described it as a really good day, adding that every day has seen progress for Shaw. If he can get to the weekend and do full pregame work without his back experiencing symptoms, then Shaw would go on a rehab assignment at some point next week.
“Rehab started right away, and we’re hitting, throwing, fielding, running, all that good stuff,” Shaw told the Tribune. “It feels really strong, almost able to do pretty much everything.”
Shaw initially sustained the injury on a swing. He has dealt with back-spasm-type issues before and believes if he had given it a day or two when he initially felt something, he could have bounced back right away.
“The nature of my role is sometimes trying to do a little too much,” Shaw said. “Still getting used to it. Given this injury it’s like, OK, maybe I was doing a little bit too much, a lot of up and down and up and down. The routines are always changing, so it’s definitely much more difficult because you know the routine isn’t consistent every day.
“When your playing isn’t consistent, it’s a lot on the body to figure out how to stay ready but also not doing too much at the same time.”
Right-hander Edward Cabrera took his first step toward returning from a blister on his right middle finger when he threw a 25-pitch bullpen session Thursday at PNC Park. He was able to throw his entire pitch mix, a good sign because off-speed stuff causes the biggest issue.
Cabrera is scheduled to throw a higher-intent, up-down bullpen Sunday, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Tribune. Cabrera is eligible to come off the injured list June 5
Week ahead: White Sox
- Friday: vs. Tigers, 6:40 p.m., CHSN
- Saturday: vs. Tigers, 1:10 p.m., CHSN
- Sunday: vs. Tigers, 1:10 p.m., CHSN
- Monday: at Twins, 6:40 p.m., CHSN
- Tuesday: at Twins, 6:40 p.m., CHSN
- Wednesday: at Twins, 12:40 p.m., CHSN
- Thursday: off
David Sandlin couldn’t recall the last time, if ever, he had retired 18 batters in a row — as he did in his major-league debut Wednesday against the Twins.
“I feel like that’s when I pitch best,” Sandlin said. “My mind kind of goes blank and just muscle memory out there.”
Sandlin surrendered a homer to Byron Buxton on the game’s second pitch and nothing else over his six innings in the 15-2 win.
Sox senior adviser to pitching Brian Bannister touted Sandlin’s “electric, 100 mph arm” when asked about the right-hander Sunday in San Francisco.
“Really good arm,” Bannister said, “and similar to (Sox starter) Davis (Martin in the sense of) trying to get him into a bigger arsenal, a little more diversity.”
That arsenal was on display Wednesday. Sandlin said he utilized the four-seam fastball, sweeper, sinker, curveball, changeup and cutter.
“The leadoff homer there and he just gets right back into attack mode,” Venable said, recapping the outing Thursday morning. “Threw strikes all night with all of his pitches. Early contact, a lot of fly balls. Was able to get some swing and miss also. Outstanding job by David.”
What we’re reading today
- Davis Martin improves to 8-1 as White Sox take 3 of 4 from Twins with a 6-2 win
- MLB owners propose a salary cap for the 1st time since baseball’s 1994-95 strike
- White Sox minor-league updates on Jacob Gonzalez, Braden Montgomery, Caleb Bonemer and more
- Cubs’ Jameson Taillon ‘proud’ of reaching 10 years of service time — and Daniel Palencia’s limited use
- Column: Another unexplainable Cubs losing streak? Been there, done that.
- Column: Japanese duo Rikuu Nishida and Munetaka Murakami star in White Sox’s extra-inning loss
- Cubs injuries: Justin Steele still weeks from throwing — and updates on Matthew Boyd and Jaxon Wiggins
- Column: Rikuu Nishida loses a shoe — but wins over fans — in his White Sox debut
Quotable
“That was good to see, and he needed it. It lets you take the deep breath and say it’s there. When it doesn’t happen you keep asking yourself when’s it going to show up, and it feels good when it shows up.” — Craig Counsell on Ian Happ’s five-RBI game Wednesday, including a three-run homer, to help end the Cubs’ 10-game losing streak
