Jake Burger singled home free runner Danny Mendick from third base in the 12th inning, and the White Sox gained a split of their two-game crosstown series with Cubs with a 5-4 victory Sunday before a sellout crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Cubs used five infielders defending Burger, who was 0-for-4 with a walk in his first five plate appearances. He lined a single to left against Robert Gsellman after Andrew Vaughn moved Mendick to third with a ground ball to the right side.
Burger’s error in the seventh gave the Cubs their only run against Dylan Cease, breaking a scoreless duel with Marcus Stroman.
“I made that error and I put that on me and I wanted to be the guy who turned it around for us,” Burger said.
Sox All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson left the game in the fifth inning with a strained right groin.
“We wanted to win that one for Tim,” Burger said.
After the Sox tied it 1-1 in the ninth on David Robertson’s wild pitch, both teams scored in each of the extra innings until Matt Foster held the Cubs scoreless in the 12th.
Alfoso Rivas’ sacrifice fly against Aaron Bummer in the 11th inning gave the Cubs a 4-3 lead.
The Sox tied it on Adam Engel’s RBI single in the 11th and thought they won it when Cubs pitcher Robert Gsellman fielded Leury Garcia’s bunt but threw one through first baseman Rivas at first base. But Garcia was called out for running inside the baseline and Engel, who had crossed home, was sent back to second.
Free runner Nico Hoerner scored the Cubs second run of the game on a White Sox fielding error in the 10th inning, and Christopher Morel added another run with an RBI single in the 10th.
Vaughn’s sacrifice fly and Jose Abreu’s RBI single against Scott Effross in the Sox’ 10th tied it.
The Sox, limited to no runs on three hits in seven innings against Stroman, tied it 1-0 in the ninth when pinch runner AJ Pollock scored on Robertson’s wild pitch.
Hoerner scored when Sox reliever Reynaldo Lopez fielded P.J. Higgins’ bunt and heaved it over the head of first baseman Jose Abreu. Higgins advance to second and scored on a single by Christopher Morel, who extended his hitting streak to eight games.
Rafael Ortega scored from second base on Burger’s fielding error in the seventh for the Cubs’ only run against Dylan Cease. All three Cubs runs were unearned.
Stroman, lowering his ERA to 3.95, gave up three hits and two walks and struck out two in seven innings.
Ortega scored from second on Burger’s error with two outs. Ortega walked and stole second, and after Hoerner was walked intentionally, Burger unsuccessfully tried to backhand Higgins’ bouncer, allowing Ortega to score.
Cease allowed two hits and walked four while striking out five. Bouncing back from a three-inning stint in which he gave up seven runs to the Red Sox Tuesday, Cease (3.69 ERA) threw a season high 108 pitches.
The Sox loaded the bases against Stroman in the seventh with one out but catcher Reese McGuire struck out on a pitch below the strike zone and Josh Harrison lined out to second.
The Sox also had a good scoring chance when Harrison led off the sixth with a walk and advanced on a wild pitch. But Stroman fielded Danny Mendick’s sacrifice bunt attempt and threw out Harrison at third for the first out of the inning.
Mendick, who replaced Anderson at short, had two hits. He singled leading off the eighth against Mychal Givens, but Vaughn struck out, Burger’s fly ball to the warning track in center was caught by Morel — who held on after banging into the wall — and Abreu, swinging at what would have been fall four, hit a weak grounder to Givens.
The Cubs beat the Sox 5-1 Saturday in the first of two games at Guaranteed Rate Field.
