CHICAGO _ Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu tied a major-league record Sunday by homering in his fourth consecutive at-bat, but the Chicago Cubs avoided further ignominy with an array of clutch performances to avoid a three-game sweep by their crosstown rivals.
After looking foolish on two sliders, Kyle Schwarber crushed a flat breaking pitch from Dylan Cease into the center-field seats at Wrigley Field for a two-run homer in the sixth inning that gave the Cubs a 2-1 victory in the City Series.
That enabled Yu Darvish to receive a well-deserved victory. Darvish's only blemish in seven innings was a solo home run in the second by Abreu, who became the 43rd player in major-league history to homer in four consecutive at-bats. He finished with six home runs in the series.
"Abreu consistently does it," Schwarber said. "He's a real threat."
Jeremy Jeffress bailed Craig Kimbrel out of a jam in the eighth and induced Yoan Moncada to ground to short with the bases loaded in the ninth to end the game.
But Darvish made the victory possible by harnessing a potent Sox offense that scored 17 runs in the first two games _ both convincing victories.
"The teams that are going to have success, you need those type of guys you feel it's win day," Cubs manager David Ross said. "(Darvish) is at the top of that list lately."
Darvish struck out the last batter in his final five innings, including three in the seventh, and finished with 10 strikeouts. He allowed six hits and walked only one.
"He had a very good game plan," Abreu said. "We have to tip our cap to him, but we also have to recognize the work Cease did. Dylan threw a pretty good game, just one mistake. It was a homer. That happens in baseball."
Darvish has allowed four runs in his last 33 innings to lower his ERA to 1.70. He has struck out 28 in his last three starts.
Since the 2019 All-Star break, Darvish is 9-5 with a 2.42 ERA, 162 strikeouts and 13 walks in 118? innings. He is 5-0 with a 1.09 ERA in his last five starts.
"I don't want to think about (the Cy Young Award)," he said. "I don't care. Just focus on the next pitch."
Darvish, who turned 34 last week, had his fastball clocked at 98 mph and induced 26 swings and misses with the help of a cut fastball, knuckle curve and slider.
"I feel weird," he said. "Most of the people, when you get old, you lose velocity with a lot of stuff. But I feel good, (better) than when I was 25, 26."
Darvish was lifted after 103 pitches, and Kimbrel provided some entertaining moments. Relying heavily on his knuckle curve, Kimbrel struck out Tim Anderson and Moncada but walked Yasmani Grandal on four pitches and Abreu on a full count.
Kimbrel took a few steps behind the mound as Ross came out to pull him.
Jeffress stopped the rally by inducing Eloy Jimenez to fly to center and has stranded all eight inherited runners this season.
The Sox, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped, outhomered the Cubs 12-1 in the series and have scored their last 19 runs on homers.
"That offense is as locked in as any we've seen this year," Ross said.
Before Schwarber's homer, the frustrations of the Cubs offense reached a new low against Cease, facing his former organization for the first time. The Cubs traded Cease and Jimenez to the Sox in July 2017 as the centerpieces of a five-player deal for Jose Quintana.
Schwarber doubled in the fourth to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Willson Contreras hit a grounder to third, and Anthony Rizzo appeared to beat the tag by McCann for the tying run.
But a replay review overturned the call. Schwarber moved to third on the play, but Contreras tried to advance on a pitch in the dirt to Jason Heyward and was thrown out at second for the final out.
The Cubs loaded the bases in the fifth on two errors by Moncada at third base and a walk to Nico Hoerner. Jason Kipnis failed to check his swing on a third strike, and Ian Happ grounded into a double play that ignited a loud cheer from the Sox dugout.
The Sox, however, missed a chance to expand their lead in the fifth after putting runners on first and second with one out. Anderson grounded to third, where Hoerner, making his second start there in place of the injured Kris Bryant, made a high throw but in time for the out.
Darvish capped his escape act by striking out Moncada.
Javier Baez struck out twice and was 5-for-41 on this homestand, but he hit a double that preceded Schwarber's 430-foot game-winning homer.
"It was probably more of a cement mixer than it was one of my better sliders," Cease said. "I have to tip my cap. He hit it well."
