ESPN fiddles as White Sox club Cubs, 7-3

Is it time to pray for the league? 

According to these Statcast exit velocities from the fifth inning of tonight's game against the Chicago Cubs, perhaps it's time to start. 

Y o w z a. 

It's probably a good idea to rewind the tape a little bit, as the first few innings, Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks certainly had the scariest parts of the White Sox lineup figured out. Hendricks is not an overpowering pitcher by any means, but is a control master that can move his pitches well with little to no effort. He's able to use his fastball early then remain deceptive by switching to off-speed pitches on the corners, swirling in a nasty curveball, which made Luis Robert look very silly early on. 

What happened next?

Let's talk about the perceived "importance" of this game — sure, it's practice baseball, but it's also good to keep in mind that in the scope of this shortened 60-game season, six of these games will be against the Cubs. That's 10%, for those of you rocking your abacus. We've had so much time to pontificate on possible lineups, but as Steve Stone pointed out during the broadcast, a strong argument can be made for "anyone anywhere," which is a good place to be: Ricky Renteria has all this flexibility, and a world of possibility within reach.

There are some early questions I had: 

• Why did the Cubs use their Opening Day starter in a practice game?
• Why is Ian Happ playing center field? 
• And, Drew Anderson
• ... wait, who?

Drew Anderson is a non-roster invitee, drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012. Anderson had TJS in 2015 and fought back to make his major league debut in 2017; he's spent the past few years being ricocheted between Triple-A and the Phillies. Why'd he get the start in this exhibition match, anyway? His bWAR stands at -0.1; perhaps a harrowing pregame stat showed that lefthanders are hitting .300 against him, which predicted Jason Kipnis' solo shot in the first inning. 

Overall, beyond a few miscues with location, Anderson's outing could have gone much worse. He fell behind in the count a few times, which will always fall to a disadvantage. In the second inning, a sac fly from Nico Hoerner scored Willson Contreras, which was some fantastic situational hitting on Hoerner's part; Contreras only was able to score after tagging up to advance on two straight flies, which is a sorta handy thing for your catcher to be able to do. 

Anderson's final line: three innings, two hits, two runs, with one walk and one strikeout.

On the other side of the coin, Hendricks seemed to know how to mow down the White Sox with his pinpoint control. Things were looking grim for the Good Guys early on. 

And then, the fifth inning happened. Can we talk about the fifth inning?

Hendricks finally fell behind in the count, to leadoff hitter Adam Engel — and Engel took advantage of a not-very-well-placed fastball and LAUNCHED it onto Waveland.

To keep the momentum going, Tim Anderson singled, and it doesn't stop there: José Abreu muscled a jam shot to right for a bloop single, driving Timmy to third. Andrew Vaughn pinch-ran for Abreu, and it's bye bye, Hendricks. 

I think this is a very appropriate time for Nancy to appear. Hi, Nancy!

Cubs reliever Jharel Cotton was dealt quite the exhibition spanking: Yasmani Grandal doubled in both Anderson and Vaughn, giving the White Sox the lead, 3-2.

You thought this inning was over? Oh, no.

Edwin Encarnación didn't stop now, ripping a double into the left-field corner, scoring Grandal. 4-2, White Sox.

And then, this happened:

Luis Robert into the brush, driving in Encarnación. Sox lead, 5-2.

Luis González pinch-ran for Luis Robert, which cued Leury García up continue the hit parade with a single to center that Happ turned into a triple. 6-2, Sox!

Fast forward to the seventh inning; back-to-back singles by Zack Collins and González ends with interesting results. Collins reaches third, and then scores on a wild pitch. The score is now 7-2!

In the eigth, the Cubs attempted a rally against White Sox reliever Carson Fulmer. Fulmer ... certainly had some control issues. In two-thirds of an inning, he gave up one run on one hit, but more alarming, three walks, bringing the score to 7-3. Luckily, Codi Heuer got the Good Guys out of that jam, and finally to the top of the ninth.

Heuer was granted the privilege of closing the door on the Cubbies (hitting 97 mph on the radar gun!) and with that, the South Side claims victory to the first of the exhibition games. 

The resurgence of Ross Detwiler?

Are we seeing a Big Boss Ross revival? Maybe. After Anderson's departure, Detwiler was able to shut down the Cubs lineup effortlessly, getting ahead of the count and moving his pitches well, with smooth control. In two innings of work, Detwiler gave up only one hit, and even more interestingly, four strikeouts. 

Jimmy Lambert continues to impress

In two innings of work, Jimmy Lambert continues to be an interesting storyline during Summer Camp as he worked two innings, only gave up one hit, and struck out one batter. 

Acquiring Yasmani Grandal was still a very good idea

While I'm a known Yasmani Grandal appreciator and sing his praises with reckless abandon, his influence was made apparent tonight: not only is he a proven patient hitter, but his leadership behind the plate continues to be unparalleled, settling down Anderson in what could have been a much worse outing.

Overall, a very satisfying game for the White Sox, given the very mismatched starting pitching duel. Very exciting things ahead!

You see us now, ESPN?

Tomorrow, the second of the two exhibition games against the Cubs takes place at Sox Park, 7:10 p.m. Control master Dallas Keuchel has the ball tomorrow for the White Sox, facing Cubs starter Yu Darvish. You may catch that game on NBC Sports Chicago.