Enhanced Box Score: White Sox 4, Cubs 0 – August 7, 2021

The loss is the loss, and losses to the White Sox always come with some modest community/internet annoyance, but that’s a good team beating a bad team. Carlos Rodon absolutely dominated Cubs hitters, and the bullpen did the same. It isn’t a great lineup, but I’ll at least motion towards my cap as though I’m going to tip it.

What was FAR more interesting to me today was how good Adbert Alzolay looked in one of the best starts of his career. That’s more important than anything else that happened today, good or bad.

Yes, it was a favorable match-up for him, but that’s also a White Sox lineup with a lot of thump. Alzolay gave up some meh hits in the first, but then he was completely locked in, getting almost nothing but groundballs and strikeouts. He even busted out MULTIPLE nasty changeups to strike out lefties, and man, that might be the best thing you could possibly see over the next seven weeks. It’s the pitch (and/or the cutter) that he needs to get a handle on, and it transforms his game. Because he’s already dominant against righties.

Trevor Megill gave up back-to-back homers on breaking pitches that caught way too much of the plate. Turns out neither would’ve been a homer anywhere but Wrigley Field (well, ok, the second was apparently also a homer in just two other parks), because those power alleys are FRIENDLY to hitters. But still, poorly-executed offspeed pitches when you can throw 98 mph are never going to be your friend.

Full box score.

written by

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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