Splitsville.
Chicago baseball fans might not love it, but they won’t forget it.
With the White Sox beating the Cubs 3-0 Wednesday at Wrigley Field, the best Crosstown season series of ’em all ended in a 3-3 deadlock. Yes, you read that correctly — the best, since interleague play began in the major leagues in 1997.
(No, I wasn’t around to see the “Hitless Wonders” Sox upset the Cubs in six games in the 1906 World Series. I’m sure it was a real doozy.)
“It’s kind of like a tie, I guess, in a sense,” said Sox rookie left fielder Sam Antonacci, his math skills in full effect. “Just six overall really good games, really good teams going at it.
“Feels like we need more games to decide the winner.”
Now that’s the spirit.
Coming into the season, the Crosstown rivalry had a nice list of stellar moments. The first walk-off homer, hit by the Cubs’ Brant Brown in 1998. The walk-off grand slam — the first of those in interleague play across the big leagues — belted by the Sox’ Carlos Lee in 2001. The Sox rallying from 8-0 down, supercharged by a pair of Paul Konerko dingers, to win in 2002. The long ball by the Cubs’ Aramis Ramirez for a walk-off in 2008, when both playoff-bound teams were in first place. The Sox’ Eloy Jimenez blasting off in the ninth against his former employers in 2019. Cubs walk-off homers by Christopher Morel in 2023 and Mike Tauchman in 2024.
But this season’s series on both sides of town delivered at such a high level, it seemed to light a fire under Chicago’s entire baseball fandom. That simply doesn’t happen very often, in large part because the Cubs and Sox are good at the same time approximately as often as a total solar eclipse is visible from your Barcalounger. But with the Sox in first place in the American League Central (yes, they’re in a terrible division) and the Cubs rolling toward the National League’s top wild-card spot (no, they’re not catching the Brewers), the spotlight was bright — and intoxicating chaos unfolded.
How do you top the way the Sox fought back in May after losing the first of three games at Rate Field? In Game 2 of that series, Munetaka Murakami loudly introduced himself to Cubs fans who’d been ignoring his exploits, launching a pair of homers. Three other Sox players — including the strikingly emergent Miguel Vargas — went deep in a blowout. Then, in the finale, the teams traded three-run shots in the ninth inning to force extra innings, setting the stage for unlikely hero Edgar Quero to win it for the Sox with a two-run homer in the 10th.
But Cubs superstar Pete Crow-Armstrong — three months after running his mouth at the Rate’s outfield fence and getting himself into trouble — kicked everything up a notch with his performance at Wrigley, where he led off Games 1 and 2 with homers and ended the first game in the 10th with a two-run blast. Teammate Alex Bregman added a walk-off base hit in the ninth a night later in a game that ended around midnight after a late-inning rain delay. Heavy drama.
To earn a season split — after going 2-12 against the Cubs from 2023 to 2025 — the Sox needed a hero in the finale. Enter Jose Urquidy, a name from World Series past who more recently had faded beyond obscurity. In 2024, the right-hander had Tommy John surgery. Less than four weeks ago, the Sox made a deal with the Pirates to get him, sending a reliever named Felix Doroteo in return. As a general rule, when you’re traded for what sounds more like a corn chip than a high-end prospect, the expectations of you tend to be low.
But Urquidy, days after being called up from Triple-A at 31, entered in the third inning and went six glorious shutout frames, looking for a couple of hours like the finest starter on either team’s roster.
You’ve got to be Urquidy-ing me. Who could’ve seen that coming?
“For sure, it’s been very hard,” he said, shaking his head, after the TV cameras had left his locker in the visiting clubhouse. “It took me two years to be at this point, to feel my body’s ready to be in the big leagues.”
But now?
“I’m feeling healthy,” he said. “I’m feeling the whole world. I’m very happy to have this feeling.”
It was some kind of season series. For many of the tough-minded, but inexperienced, Sox, it was a first-of-its-kind atmosphere.
“Up there, for sure,” center fielder Tristan Peters said. “Very electric. You’ve got people fighting in the stands. There’s boos. There’s cheers. Man — intense.”