Chicago baseball report: Starting pitching is giving White Sox and Cubs a glimmer of hope in substandard divisions

As difficult as this season has been for the Chicago White Sox and Cubs, a glimmer of hope exists as we near the midway point.

Sox starters had compiled a major-league-best 2.59 ERA in June entering Sunday, while Cubs starters had the second-best National League ERA at 3.92.

And because both teams play in substandard divisions, the teams with the best starting pitching figure to have a leg up on their divisional foes.

Can they keep it up?

That’s the question that will be answered in the coming weeks before the Aug. 1 trade deadline, when Sox general manager Rick Hahn and Cubs President Jed Hoyer will have big decisions to make on their teams’ futures.

Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Cubs and Sox.

Christopher Morel finding ‘his stride’

This month marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most spectacular hitting displays in major-league history, when Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa hit 20 home runs in June 1998 with an .842 slugging percentage and 1.173 OPS in 27 games.

Christopher Morel is no Sosa, but his power display since returning to the Cubs last month has conjured flashbacks to “Slammin’ Sammy.” Morel become the first first Cub since Sosa in 2002 to hit 12 home runs in his first 30 games of a season — and he added another in his 31st game Sunday.

After manager David Ross sat Morel during the three-game series in Anaheim, he responded by going 11-for-25 with three home runs, 11 RBIs, a .920 slugging percentage and a 1.364 OPS in his last seven games before Sunday.

Ross said Morel needed “perspective” after a brief slump to work on issues “without the pressure to perform” in games.

“It’s probably healthy for everybody going through struggles,” Ross said. “Christopher comes every day with a positive attitude. He’s probably got some of the most power I’ve seen in my career. The guy can really lean on some baseballs. He’s found his stride and the plate discipline. The calmness of the at-bats seems to be real and has been a real factor since that moment (in Anaheim).”

Morel struck out at least once in each of his first 20 games this season. After the pause in Anaheim, he managed to go strikeout-free in six of his next eight games.

“We’ve all been able to see what he’s capable of doing,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Mo has been such a big part of this team. ... It’s always nice whenever you have young guys that can contribute and contribute in a big way.”

White Sox aiming for fewer ground balls

Issues with chasing are well-documented for the Sox and were on display Thursday when they struck out 16 times during a 5-4 loss in extra innings to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Sox are focused on making contact and getting the ball in the air.

Their ground ball percentage, which according to fangraphs.com is the percentage of a batter’s balls in play that are ground balls, was the highest in the majors at 46.4% going into Sunday.

“It’s a little bit of approach, it’s pitch selection, it’s just getting good pitches to hit that you can do that with,” manager Pedro Grifol said Wednesday. “We just have to continue to improve, get the ball in the air.

“The reason I say that is because we have a team that has power and we’re hitting the ball on the ground. We’re not putting up crooked numbers. When you hit the ball on the ground, you need three hits to score. But (if) we can elevate some of these balls, we’re putting the ball in the seats. That’s what I’m looking for us to do.”

The Sox had a fly ball percentage — the percentage of a batter’s balls in play that are fly balls — of 34.9% entering Sunday. That ranked 26th in the majors.

“Every hitter across the board knows that driving the ball in the gaps is how you create damage and create runs,” first baseman Andrew Vaughn said.

The Sox have shown some power as of late. They had three home runs in Wednesday’s 8-4 victory against the Dodgers and four solo homers in Thursday’s loss. They hit two in the series opener Friday in Seattle and one more Sunday.

Entering Sunday, the Sox were 17th in the majors with 80 home runs..

Number of the week: 1

According to STATS Research, Zach Remillard became the first player in the modern era (since 1901) to record both a game-tying hit and a go-ahead hit in the ninth inning or later in his MLB debut. Remillard tied Saturday’s game with a ninth-inning single and drove in the go-ahead run in the 11th for a 4-3 win against the Mariners.

Week ahead: Cubs

The Cubs have been waiting for this week since 2019, when Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant were featured in an MLB tweet promoting the London Series games against the St. Louis Cardinals scheduled for 2020. Rizzo and Bryant were photoshopped as Paul McCartney and George Harrison on the iconic “Abbey Road” cover, promoting the games a year before they were to take place.

That was before the COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt halt to the 2020 season, and the London games were put on hold as well. The series was rescheduled for Saturday and Sunday in London. Rizzo and Bryant are long gone, having been dealt during the 2021 sell-off, so Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner will take their place as would-be Beatles. (Former Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who had the John Lennon spot in the photo, retired after last season).

But first things things first. The Cubs play an important three-game series in Pittsburgh before flying across the pond Wednesday night. They swept the Pirates last week at Wrigley Field to vault back into the NL Central race, and they have Drew Smyly, Marcus Stroman and Kyle Hendricks starting in the rematch.

• Monday: at Pirates, 6:05 p.m., Marquee

• Tuesday: at Pirates, 6:05 p.m., Marquee

• Wednesday: at Pirates, 11:35 a.m., Marquee

• Thursday: off

• Friday: off

• Saturday: vs. Cardinals in London, 12:10 p.m., Fox-32

• Sunday: vs. Cardinals in London, 9:10 a.m., ESPN

Week ahead: White Sox

Clint Frazier had one thought during an epic at-bat against Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia in the eighth inning of a tie game Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Come on. You’ve got to do this right here,’” Frazier told the Tribune.

Frazier quickly was down 0-2 in the count. He fouled off a pitch, took a ball, fouled off another and took another ball to even the count. Two more foul balls followed.

On the ninth pitch, he drove in the go-ahead run with a single. The Sox pulled away for an 8-4 win.

“I had to do one of two things: get a hit or move him over somehow,” Frazier said. “The Dodgers are nasty. I knew it was going to be a grind. As the at-bat progressed, I felt the advantage was given to me because I was the one fouling off every pitch he had thrown, I had a pretty good feel for how that pitch felt coming in. Finally I got it. I was just trying to stay aggressive and help the game be in our favor.”

Frazier has a .217/.321/.261 slash line with two RBIs, seven walks, six runs and three stolen bases in 21 games since joining the Sox from Triple-A Charlotte. A seven-year MLB veteran, Frazier began the season in the Texas Rangers system before being released and signing a minor-league deal with the Sox in late April.

The Sox begin a six-game homestand Monday with the first of three against the Rangers.

• Monday: vs. Rangers, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Tuesday: vs. Rangers, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Wednesday: vs. Rangers, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Thursday: off

• Friday: vs. Red Sox, 7:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Saturday: vs. Red Sox, 3:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Sunday: vs. Red Sox, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH

What we’re reading this morning

• Lance Lynn matches a White Sox record with 16 strikeouts — but they lose 5-1 to the Mariners

• Cubs get some nifty defense from Nick Madrigal and others but are held to 3 hits as their win streak ends at 5

• ‘It’s a moment I will never forget’: Zach Remillard leads the White Sox to a win in his major-league debut

• Column: Cubs ride the Wrigley wave to their 5th straight win. ‘We’re playing a good brand of baseball.’

• Column: Cubs need to ensure Kyle Hendricks never wears another team’s jersey

• Zach Remillard, in the White Sox system since 2016, gets his big-league call-up: ‘Always been a dream of mine’

• Why the Cubs optioned prospect Matt Mervis to Triple-A Iowa with the return of Cody Bellinger

This week in Chicago baseball

June 20, 1973: White Sox’s Cy Acosta becomes the first American League pitcher to bat since the designated hitter rule went into effect

Acosta struck out in the eighth inning and got the win in the Sox’s 8-3 win over the California Angels.

June 20, 2007: Sammy Sosa hits his 600th home run, making him the fifth player to reach the milestone

Sosa, playing for the Texas Rangers after a year out of baseball, hit a solo homer off Jason Marquis. The opposite-field shot came in the fifth inning against the Cubs, the team he played for from 1992-2004.

Employing his familiar home run hop and wearing a huge smile as he rounded the bases with the theme from “The Natural” blasting over the sound system, Sosa accomplished something only Henry Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays had done before him.

When he hit No. 500 with the Cubs on April 4, 2003, in Cincinnati, Sosa had little interest in trying to persuade the lucky fan who caught it to give it back.

“Let him sell it,” Sosa said. “God bless America.”

But with his latest feat, Sosa deposited No. 600 into the Rangers bullpen, where reliever Akinori Otsuka retrieved it.

June 21, 1989: White Sox’s Carlton Fisk sets an American League record for homers by a catcher

“Here’s to Yogi for setting the standard,” said the 41-year-old Fisk, raising a glass of flat champagne after passing the Yankees’ Yogi Berra with 307 home runs.

Fisk, a native New Englander, couldn’t have picked a better venue than Yankee Stadium to launch his historic rocket, unless it was Fenway Park, where Fisk started his career 18 years earlier.

“Coincidental more than anything,” Fisk said. “I got the ball back. That was nice.”

The night — a 7-3 White Sox win — wasn’t all nice. In the third inning, Fisk was hit in the groin with a pitch by starter Greg Hibbard.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Fisk said. “Yogi’d appreciate that part of the game.”

June 23, 1984: Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg has ‘The Sandberg Game’

Sandberg hit two late-inning home runs off Cardinals reliever Bruce Sutter to tie the game twice as the Cubs went on to win 12-11 in 11 innings. Sandberg led off the ninth with a solo home run to tie the game 9-9, then hit a two-run, two-out homer in the 10th to tie the game 11-11.

The game was televised nationally for NBC’s “Game of the Week” with Bob Costas and Tony Kubek on the call.

Costas recalled the game on its 30th anniversary to the Tribune.

“The ‘Game of the Week’ meant something different 30 years ago than it does now,” he said. “You can get baseball now everywhere. You can practically get it on your wristwatch. But the ‘Game of the Week’ then really was the game of the week. If you lived in a town that didn’t have a big-league team, those three hours every Saturday were your major-league baseball fix. You didn’t mow the lawn then.

“Now you’ve got Cardinals against Cubs, which is always great. And the Cubs mount this comeback. They’re down 9-3. They get to within 9-8. Bruce Sutter, who is close to invincible, is looking to close the game for the Cardinals. And Sandberg homers into the left-center-field bleachers; we go to extra innings.

“Willie McGee, who hit for the cycle that day — lost in the shuffle, kind of a footnote — knocks in two in the top of the 10th and it’s 11-9. Two outs and nobody on, (Bobby) Dernier works a full-count walk. Up comes Sandberg again. Homers off Sutter again … and this is back in a day when a closer might work three or four innings in a certain situation. So Sutter is still in.

“(Sandberg) homers again and it is almost exactly to the same spot. It’s almost as if the same fan could have caught both home run balls. And then eventually, talk about a footnote, Dave Owen — Spike Owen’s brother — singles over a drawn-in infield in the 11th and the Cubs win the game 12-11.

“And it was that game that really put Sandberg on the map and marked him as an MVP candidate, and in fact he did win the MVP and the Cubs did win the division.”

In 2023 it was announced Sandberg will be the fifth Cubs player with a statue outside Wrigley, joining Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins. The tributes to the Cubs icons are now part of the redesigned “Statue Row” in Gallagher Way.

Quotable

“Anybody and everybody would say we’d rather have won a ton more games than where we’re at right now, but we’d all agree we like what we’ve been seeing the last week. I feel like we’ve been a lot more aggressive and playing our style of baseball.” — Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson