Chicago Cubs send Arrieta to the hill as Crosstown Classic begins

It has been an eventful second half for the first-place Chicago Cubs who have won the first three series to maintain their lead in the National League Central division. After taking down the Brewers, Joe Maddon will call upon his ace to begin the Crosstown Classic.

Following their win over the Brewers in Milwaukee, news broke regarding trade talks taking place between both the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees. With multiple trade pieces at their disposal, it was expected to go after a big name and that is exactly what they did.

While he may not be with the team on the South Side tonight, Aroldis Chapman will join the organization and likely make his first appearance in a Cubs uniform tomorrow. This deal will be talked about all year.

But for now, all eyes in Chicago are focused on the Crosstown Classic. That time of the year when the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox come together for a series to determine who will have bragging rights over the Windy City.

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Taking the mound for the Cubs (59-38) will be ace right-hander Jake Arrieta who appeared to turn things around following a disastrous end to the first half of the 2016 campaign.

Arrieta (12-4, 2.60 ERA) was absolutely on fire in his previous outing while the Cubs were hosting the New York Mets. Jake held New York to one earned run on five hits while issuing only one walk and striking out eight through seven innings of work.

He even had himself a double but was thrown out at the plate when attempting to score on a base hit later on. Out by a mile, originally called safe until Terry Collins asked for the umpires to take a look at the footage.

With the Chicago White Sox (48-50) having a little trouble of their own when it comes to Chris Sale, they may end up parting ways with a few key players including their ace. Sale was scheduled to take on the Cubs during this four-game set but received a suspension after a clubhouse incident before his previous outing.

Tonight, 32-year-old and former teammate of Jake’s with the Baltimore Orioles, Miguel Gonzalez, will be looking to stop the North Siders in their tracks. Gonzalez (2-5, 4.41 ERA) has made 14 starts this season for the Sox only to have a handful of quality starts go to waste.

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It has been 19 days since Miguel recorded his last win and was in line to pick up his third in Seattle until his bullpen took over. The Sox led Seattle 5-2 entering the seventh until the Mariners stormed back with several home runs.

At one point, both clubs owned two of the best records in all of baseball. Now it’s just the Cubs sitting at the top of the food chain with their city rivals sitting near the bottom of their division in the American League.

First pitch for tonight’s series opener is set for 7:10 p.m. central time and will air live on ABC 7, 670 The Score.