Major League Baseball‘s interleague series between the New York Yankees and Mets is called the Subway Series. Easy to remember. When the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers play, it’s called the Freeway Series. Makes sense.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
When the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs play each year … well, the names have varied. There have been titles like the Red Line Series, the Windy City Showdown, North-South Showdown, City Series, Crosstown Cup, Crosstown Series and Crosstown Showdown.
Nowadays, it’s generally referred to as the Crosstown Classic, and the South Side White Sox open a two-game set on the North Side of Chicago at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. The teams play two at Guaranteed Rate Field, eight miles south of Wrigley, to close the first half of the season.
The Cubs have won this series the past two seasons, which isn’t a huge surprise because they have been the vastly superior team overall in making the playoffs each year, while the White Sox didn’t top 67 wins in either season. The South Siders last won the series in 2014. Probably the most memorable game between the two was May 20, 2006, when White Sox baserunner/noted pest A.J. Pierzynski and Cubs catcher Michael Barrett started a brawl after a home-plate collision.
While the Cubs are again clearly the better team, the White Sox are somewhat where the Cubs were in 2014: With some terrific young talent both at the major-league level and in the farm system and a year away from playoff contention. The Cubbies have made the postseason every year since 2015.
For this week’s mini-series, the White Sox will lose the designated hitter, which is usually Yonder Alonso.
It’s expected to be Ivan Nova (3-5, 6.28 ERA) for the Pale Hose in the opener against southpaw Cole Hamels (6-2, 2.98 ERA). Hamels is one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, not allowing an earned run over his past three starts spanning 22 innings with just 11 hits allowed. The Cubs opened as -210 favorites for this game at the sportsbooks.
On Wednesday, the White Sox are scheduled to throw ace Lucas Giolito (10-1, 2.22 ERA) against lefty Jon Lester (5-5, 4.08 ERA). Giolito has won eight straight starts with an ERA of 0.94 in that stretch, while Lester comes off a bit of a rough start and loss at the Dodgers. It’s possible the White Sox are slight favorites for that one.
