[jksander]

June 15, 2026: Sean Burke (4-3, 4.29 ERA, 56.2 IP, 61 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched against Shota Imanaga (3-5, 3.05 ERA, 88.2 IP, 84 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) in game one of our series against the Cubs, who drew first blood in the top of the third with an RBI single by Matt Shaw that scored Caisse from second. We tied it up in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Cody Bellinger, and Noah Syndergaard took over for Burke to start the fifth inning. He stayed out and pitched three solid innings to keep it tied up, but we went into the top of the eighth with the score still 1-1, with Eduard Bazardo taking the ball. He pitched around a single by Jeimer Candelario, getting us through the innning unscathed, and Jose Alvarado took over in the ninth with the score unchanged. He walked Pablo Alliendo and Pete Crow-Armstrong with one out, but got out of a dangerous spot by striking out Seiya Suzuki swinging and getting Ian Happ out via a hard-hit flyball to Joshua Mears in left field. In the bottom of the ninth Mike Tauchman hit a single over the head of Matt Shaw into right for a single, but we weren’t able to do anything with the runner and this one was headed -- again -- for extra innings, knotted up at 1-1. Ben Joyce took over on the mound in the 10th and he kept them from getting anywhere, stranding pinch-runner Ian Happ and Candelario, who got on base with a walk on one out. Brooks Lee didn’t make our fans wait ... he’d been hitless all night, but took the count full and hit one hard off a fastball from Jose LeClerc, the ball bouncing past Candelario at third to get into the left corner -- we scored the walkoff run to win 2-1! Joyce got the win, improving to 5-3 with a 4.82 ERA, picking up a strikeout against one walk, and we outhit them 9-8, led by Bellinger (two hits and a run) and Mears (two hits and an RBI).

Heston Kjerstad has hit .281 with a double, two homers and eight RBIs during his nine-game rehab assignment with AAA Charlotte, and we’ve decided he’s ready to return to our major league roster following his knee tendinitis. We’ve waived / DFA’d Lenyn Sosa to make room for him, as Mears has earned his chance to remain on the 26-man roster for now.
 
June 16, 2026: This morning’s sports page for the Tribune dubbed us the “white-knuckle Sox,” pointing out how we’re 17-11 in one-run games and 6-5 in extras already this season. Six of those one-run wins have come in June, and we’re already 10-3 for the month, with a five-game lead on the rest of the division. With Kjerstad back in the lineup and two games left against the Cubs before a HUGE nine-game road trip, it’s hard not to start thinking ahead ... but living and dying off one-run games puts you in a tough spot, and we’ve got to work extra hard to show it’s been effort and not luck that’s been winning us ballgames.

This evening a sell-out crowd showed up to watch Drew Rasmussen (2-3, 2.92 ERA, 64.2 IP, 69 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) pitch against Justin Steele (5-6, 4.40 ERA, 77.2 IP, 72 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). But tonight didn’t start as a duel, with the Cubs hitting us hard in the first, three hits in a row culminating in a three-run slam out of left by Ian Happ to put them up 3-0 without an out. Rasmussen got three quick outs from there but threw 30 pitches to do it -- not a recipe for a successful start. But we answered quickly -- they walked Meidroth on one out, walking Vargas on two outs ... and then Ceddanne Rafaela slugged his own three-runner, this time out of right, to put us into a 3-3 tie as we went into the top of the second. Vargas hit a two-run single in the bottom of the third to put us into the lead 5-3, and Rasmussen did his best to get through the fifth ... but with two outs and men on second and third, Ian Happ delivered a two-run single to tie the game, and Ryan Weber came out to finish the inning. He stayed out in the sixth and gave up a three-run bomb out of right off Michael Busch’s bat with one out, though he did finish the inning without letting them have anything else. Brooks Lee hit an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to get us back within two runs, and Weber got a pair of outs before we brought out Jonathan Cannon, going into the stretch trailing 8-6. The Cubs added on a run in the top of the ninth thanks to a sac-fly by Matt Shaw, but Kjerstad hit a sac-fly in the bottom of the inning to drive in a run ... with one out and Meidroth on second Vargas took a walk, and with two outs Tauchman walked the bases loaded. But Andre Lipcius couldn’t get anything to happen and we lost this one 9-7. Weber took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 6.14 ERA thanks to two innings with two hits and three earned runs. Each team had 10 hits, ours led by Rafaela who had two hits, two runs and three RBIs, while Vargas added two hits, two walks, a run and two RBIs.

June 17, 2026: Noah Schultz (4-3, 2.03 ERA, 84.1 IP, 105 K’s, 0.70 WHIP) started against Ben Brown (3-5, 3.46 ERA, 75.1 IP, 66 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) in game three against the Cubs, and he’s been red hot lately ... he’s had two games this year with 10 K’s or more and he’s had 19 of them in his last two starts. He picked up where he left off, striking out two in the top of the first including a swinging strikeout by Candelario that stranded Happ on third. Ha-seong Kim hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning that put us into the lead, and in the bottom of the sixth Brandon Valenzuela added on with an RBI single. Schultz got us through the seventh, though the White Sox got on the board with a solo homer from Owen Caisse to get them within a run heading into the stretch. Ryan Helsley took over in the eighth inning, and he kept our lead safe when, with one out and runners on the corners, he got Seiya Suzuki to hit into a fielder’s choice, taking Happ out at home plate! Our attempt to buy some run insurance failed when, with Ceddanne Rafaela on second with two outs Mike Tauchman popped out to left to end the inning just a few feet short of a two-run homer. So with the one run lead, Ben Joyce came out to close things ... we got out of the game with runners on the corners when Kevin Alcantara hit into a fielder’s choice, out taken at second -- we get out of here with another 2-1 win to take the series two games to one! Schultz improved to 5-3 with a 1.97 ERA, allowing just five hits and the one run with nine strikeouts, giving him 28 K’s across his last three starts! Helsley earned his ninth hold and Joyce his seventh save -- with eight hits each, our team was led by Kim, who had two hits including his homer, for a run and an RBI.

That win gave us our 40th of the season (!!!) and we’ll take that 40-28 record (and 5.5-game lead over Cleveland) into our nine-game road trip out west, where we’ll face the Rangers (32-35, 3rd AL West), Dodgers (45-24, 1st NL West) and Astros (33-37, 4th AL West) before returning to Chicago for thre games each against the Yankees (37-32, 2nd AL East) and Brewers (31-38, 4th NL Central) that will take us through the fourth-of-July weekend.