The Crosstown Classic finally lived up to the hype Monday night at Wrigley Field. Both Chicago teams walked in over.500 for the first time since 2016 — the Cubs sitting at 72-53 with the top NL Wild Card spot, the White Sox at 65-58 and holding first place in the AL Central — and the first inning turned into a home run derby almost immediately.
Wrigley Field's scoreboard flipped to White Sox 1, Cubs 0 in the top of the first after a ball left the yard at 101.2 mph exit velocity.
White Sox pitcher No. 8 barely got settled before giving one up, and it set the tone early. Cubs fans didn't have to wait long to answer, though — Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki went deep in the same frame, flipping the board to a 2-1 Cubs lead and sending Wrigley into a frenzy.
The scoreboard read 2-1 as a Cubs runner circled the bases with the crowd on its feet after the back-to-back shot.
Barstool Chicago summed up the flurry as Round One of a heavyweight fight, and that's basically what this series has become — two rosters with real October aspirations, both swinging haymakers on national TV. It's also the first meeting between these two clubs since May, when a Crow-Armstrong-fan blowup at Rate Field made headlines and eventually got him fined by MLB. Nobody in this crowd was thinking about that Monday — they were too busy watching baseballs leave the yard.
A Cubs runner jogs down the first-base line as fans in the outfield seats celebrate the back-to-back homers, with Suzuki shown on deck moments earlier.
The Cubs' 2-1 cushion didn't last. In the 4th, Randal Grichuk turned around and put the White Sox back on top with a 3-run blast that had the visiting section on its feet, flipping the board to 3-2.
Grichuk rounds the bases and is mobbed at home plate after his 3-run shot put Chicago's South Siders ahead 3-2 in the 4th inning.
Big Cat had the funniest reaction to the swing, admitting a Barstool White Sox account had all but called it before the inning even started — though he was less thrilled with how the man's banana bread turned out that day. Grichuk's had a knack for this rivalry all year; he was the guy who got the party started with a 2-run shot back in May's series at Rate Field, too. Whatever happens the rest of this week, the Crosstown Classic is doing exactly what it's supposed to do — giving both fan bases something to scream about.