Chicago baseball report: The Cubs’ bobblehead blunder — and Andrew Benintendi looking to launch for the White Sox
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Repeated bullpen implosions tend to make a manager’s hair turn gray, so be sure to check back on David Ross and Pedro Grifol at the end of the season.
The managers of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox can’t seem to find a way to get on a prolonged hot streak with their bullpens performing so poorly over the first two months. The porous Cubs bullpen ranked 26th in the majors with a 4.61 ERA entering Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, while the White Sox bullpen sat 29th with an abysmal 5.28 ERA going into their game in Detroit — which they lost in 10 innings after blowing a ninth-inning lead.
Neither team has had a reliable closer, though the Sox are expected to bring back Liam Hendriks on Monday after he rehabbed with the team following a stint at Triple-A Charlotte.
Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.
Cubs apologize for bobblehead error
As bobblehead mishaps go, it’s hard to top having the wrong uniform number for your iconic Hall of Fame outfielder.
But at least that gives the Cubs something to shoot for.
A bobblehead promotion Saturday went awry, and it was an unforced error by the Cubs’ business side.
The Billy Williams bobblehead giveaway had the Cubs great wearing No. 1 instead of No. 26, a number most knowledgeable Cubs fans know well. After someone tweeted the error Saturday night, it opened the floodgates to much mocking of the organization online.
It’s hard to believe no one in the organization spotted the error before the bobbleheads were delivered to Wrigley Field for dispersal. But it happened. It also came at an inopportune time, with the team in a prolonged slump that began in late April and has continued throughout May.
The Cubs released a statement afterward saying they made “a regrettable error by distributing Hall of Famer Billy Williams bobbleheads to fans with the incorrect number.”
“This should have never happened, and we know many fans will be disappointed,” the statement said. “We are in the process of having new bobbleheads produced so fans will have an opportunity to exchange the item. Fans who purchased tickets to (Saturday’s) game will be contacted when we receive the new bobbleheads. Due to manufacturing and shipping times, it is very likely we will have these items available next season.”
Wait till next year?
Sounds like a plan.
Andrew Benintendi cleared for takeoff
Andrew Benintendi lined a double to right field against Logan Allen in the seventh inning Tuesday at Progressive Field. It was a crucial hit during a three-run White Sox rally in a 4-2 win against the Cleveland Guardians.
Benintendi extended his hitting streak to 10 in that game. But it was three other at-bats, all outs, that he also viewed as positive trips to the plates.
“To get results is always nice, but if you’re only stuck on results you’re not always going to be happy,” Benintendi told the Tribune on Wednesday in Cleveland. “(Tuesday) I flew out three times, which is a positive for me because I’m trying to hit the ball in the air a little more and get it off the ground. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Benintendi is slashing .271/.332/.354 in 51 games during his first season with the Sox.
“We haven’t even seen the (Benintendi) that I know is there,” Grifol said last week. “This is what he does. He hangs in there, he battles. He’s in a good spot and all of a sudden he takes off and has three weeks, four weeks where you can’t get him out.
“We haven’t seen that part yet. We haven’t seen him yet drive balls in the seats, which he’ll do. But this is what he does. He’s a great competitor, big hits, gets on base and all of a sudden he takes off, does some special things.”
While he doesn’t have a homer, his 14 doubles were tied for sixth in the American League through Saturday.
The hitting streak ended Wednesday, but Benintendi is slashing .314/.390/.471 (16-for-51) in his last 15 games with at least one hit in 12 of those games.
“If I wasn’t swinging it well, I would be fouling off pitches and swinging through pitches,” Benintendi said. “Just trying to keep it simple and not do too much and using the whole field, especially the pull side, which I haven’t used the past two years that much (36% pull percentage this season compared with 30.5% last year according to fangraphs.com). Using the whole field and taking my hits when I can get them.”
Week ahead: Cubs
The Cubs famously stole Joe Maddon from the Tampa Bay Rays after the 2014 season and went on to World Series glory two years later. The Rays Way worked well in Chicago, with Maddon’s unique style credited as one of the biggest factors in the culture change.
But Cubs management soured on Maddon after the core of the rebuild failed to establish itself over the long haul. After a brief stint with the Anaheim Angels, Maddon has been out of baseball since last year.
Maddon’s replacement with the Rays, Kevin Cash, is now considered the gold standard of major-league managers, consistently winning with low-salaried teams. In his ninth season with Tampa Bay, Cash has a better record than Maddon, while both made four postseason trips with the Rays and won two Manager of the Year awards.
This year’s Rays rank 28th in major-league payrolls at $74.5 million but have the most dominant team in the game at 39-16, a .709 winning percentage. They arrive at Wrigley Field on Monday for a three-game series, the end of a Cubs homestand that started with so much promise.
After a day off Thursday, the Cubs begin a 10-game West Coast trip with a four-game series in San Diego. By the time they return home, it could be the start of “Sell-off Watch 2.0.”
Monday: vs. Rays, 1:20 p.m., Marquee
Tuesday: vs. Rays, 7:05 p.m., Marquee
Wednesday: vs. Rays, 1:20 p.m., Marquee
Thursday: Off
Friday: at Padres, 8:40 p.m., Marquee
Saturday: at Padres, 9:10 p.m., Marquee, FS1
Sunday: at Padres, 4:30 p.m., Marquee
Week ahead: White Sox
The Sox spent most of May in the division, playing 20 games against American League Central foes.
They have just three division games in June: Friday-Sunday against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox are 12-11 against the AL Central this season after wrapping up a stretch of 13 consecutive division games with Sunday’s 6-5, 10-inning loss to the Tigers. The Sox went 8-5 during the stretch.
The upcoming games against the Tigers are the Sox’s last against an AL Central opponent through the All-Star break. They won’t see another division team until July 21-23 in Minnesota.
Outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jiménez returned to the lineup Sunday after missing time following an appendectomy in early May, and second baseman Elvis Andrus could be back for the series against the Tigers.
Grifol said Andrus “felt good” after going 1-for-3 with a run Saturday in his first rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte. He’s working his way back from a strained left oblique.
“Everything I got from him and the trainers checked out good,” Grifol said. “We’ll see how this thing goes. I don’t get too caught up in rehabs unless something happens, but we’re checking boxes now, just making sure everything is feeling good. And so far so good.”
Monday: vs. Angels, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH, FS1
Tuesday: vs. Angels, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Wednesday: vs. Angels, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Thursday: Off
Friday: vs. Tigers, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Saturday: vs. Tigers, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
Sunday: vs. Tigers, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
What we’re reading this morning
Cubs get swept by the Reds on an ‘ugly weekend’ — and the schedule is about to get tougher
Eloy Jiménez returns, but the White Sox suffer another tough loss, falling 6-5 in 10 innings
This week in Chicago baseball
May 29, 2013: Cubs’ Dioner Navarro has the first three-homer game of his career.
He connected from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Cubs to a 9-3 win over the White Sox. Navarro drove in a career-high six runs and scored four times.
May 30, 1922: Cubs and Cardinals make a trade between the morning and afternoon games of a Memorial Day doubleheader.
Outfielder Max Flack was sent to the Cardinals dugout for outfielder Cliff Heathcote. They played one game for each team.
May 31, 1970: Sox’s Luis Aparicio and Walt Williams each collect five hits in a 22-13 rout of Red Sox.
Williams also scored five times. The teams collected 40 hits, one short of the AL record set in 1950.
June 3, 2003: Cubs’ Sammy Sosa ejected for using a corked bat.
Sosa was ejected in the first inning after his bat shattered on a groundout to second base and pieces of cork were found among the shards. Plate umpire Tim McClelland conferred with his crew, then ejected Sosa for using a corked bat. Sosa apologized “from the bottom of my heart” after the game.
He acknowledged ownership of the bat, explaining that he occasionally used it for batting practice and home run exhibitions to entertain his fans. He said it had been inadvertently mixed in with his regular bats.
“I just picked the wrong bat,” he said. “I apologize to my team, to my fans. I apologize to the commissioner of baseball.”
McClelland said he saw a half-dollar-sized piece of cork in the bat, about halfway down the barrel.
Sosa was later suspended eight games for the incident.
