Chicago Cubs beat the White Sox; Jake Arrieta wins No. 14

Arrieta picks up his 14th win as Cubs go for sweep on Sunday

It wasn’t the prettiest win of the nine straight, but in the end it was a win. The Chicago Cubs made several miscues on the bases and in the field, but none of them were detrimental as they defeated the crosstown White Sox, 6-3. Jake Arrieta (14-6, 2.39) had to pitch out of some early trouble but was Cy Young like again. Jorge Soler drove in two to help lace the Cubs offense. Jose Quintana (6-10, 3.62) took the loss as the Sox will try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon.

The White Sox (54-60) started the scoring in the second on an RBI groundout by Carlos Sanchez scored Avisail Garcia for the early 1-0 lead. Arrieta’s throwing error almost led to disaster, but the Cubs worked out of the jam only allowing the lone score. The lead was shortlived as back-to-back doubles from Addison Russell and Dexter Fowler tied the game up at 1-1.

The Cubs (67-48) took the lead in the fifth on a sharp single from Kyle Schwarber to score Russell for the 2-1 lead. A Soler single in the sixth made it 3-1, and the Cubs never relinquished the lead again. Arrieta allowed an RBI double to Alexei Ramirez in the bottom of the sixth to score Adam LaRoche, cutting it to 3-2.

Anthony Rizzo added an RBI and Soler knocked in his second of the game with another RBI single in the seventh to tally the final run of the game. Justin Grimm worked 1 1/3 innings, and Hector Rondon closed it out for his 21st save of the season.

The Cubs have now won nine straight–the first time they’ve won that many in a row in August or after since September 1953. They go for the sweep tomorrow as Dan Haren will face Sox ace Chris Sale. A win would put the Cubs an astonishing 20 games over .500. Not bad for a team that was supposed to be a year away still.

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