The White Sox are going to the playoffs, but they’re not exactly storming in.
Defeated 10-8 by the Cubs in the final game of an abbreviated 60-game season Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field, the Sox (35-25) lost for the second time in three games to their crosstown rival this weekend — the Cubs won the series opener 10-0 Friday — and have lost seven of their last eight and nine of 12.
They will get the No. 7 seed and play the Athletics in Oakland in the Wild Card series starting Tuesday.
Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez allowed homers to Kris Bryant and David Bote in a six-run Cubs second, and Jace Fry served up a homer to Billy Hamilton, who also stole home on the front end of a double steal. The Sox seemed to be out of this one early, trailing 6-0 in the second and 10-1 in the seventh before making a game of it with five runs in the eighth and two in the ninth on Yasmani Grandal’s homer.
“A lot of things happened to make me feel like we’re still battling,” manager Rick Renteria said. “That was the most important thing. Winning the ballgame would have been the icing on the cake but they showed a lot of fight.”
The Sox had playoff expectations in the fourth year of their rebuild but exceeded expectations when they built their record to 32-16 on Sept. 15 and owned the top seed in the American League playoffs, but have fallen on hard times since. Sunday’s loss left relying from outside help to give them a top four seed in the 2020 expanded eight-team AL field.
The Sox won two of three in their series at Wrigley Field and finish 3-3 against the Cubs.
