From Magic Wands To Walk-Offs: White Sox Steal Spotlight In Crosstown Series Win

In a season filled with what feels like “statement wins”, the Chicago White Sox continue to outdo themselves.

Over the past eight days alone, they capped a series win over the Seattle Mariners with a late eighth-inning comeback, sparked by a pinch-hit home run from Randal Grichuk. They followed that by sweeping the Kansas City Royals, highlighted by yet another eighth-inning pinch-hit homer, this time from Derek Hill.

But this weekend’s series win against the Chicago Cubs, which included an 8-3 beatdown and a thrilling 9-8 extra innings comeback, may have topped them all. Not just because of the bragging rights that come with taking down a cross-town rival, but because of how it unfolded and how many different players stepped up to make it happen.

Cubs outfielder Michael Conforto summed up the vibes at 35th and Shields perfectly after the series: “It felt like a playoff atmosphere.”

Every Crosstown Classic draws the eyes of Chicago, but this one carried a different kind of weight. For the first time since 2008, both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox entered the series with winning records.

Murakami Rises To The Occasion…With The Help Of Vasil’s Magic Wand

After dropping the series opener, it felt like the White Sox needed a big performance from their three big three M’s, Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas, and Munetaka Murakami. The trio is the only pair in the MLB to each have ten or more homers on the season.

But Murakami entered Saturday night in a rare slump by his standards, having gone 30 plate appearances without a home run. But a $20 wand purchased by Jordan Leasure off Amazon seemed to do the trick.

The wand was gifted to Mike Vasil in late April, and he has been using it ever since to jokingly “cast spells” on White Sox hitters before games.

“Mune requires a special spell, pregame. It’s unique to him,” Vasil said during CHSN’s White Sox pregame show Sunday. “He truly loves it, and I love to do it for him.”

Miguel Vargas set the tone early with a three-run homer in the first inning. Then, after getting tapped on the helmet with the wand before taking the field, Murakami snapped his homerless streak by muscling a Jameson Taillon changeup over the left-field fence in the third. Two batters later, Colson Montgomery joined the home run parade, launching a 442-foot blast to right to push the lead to 5-0.

But Munetaka Murakami wasn’t done. In his next at-bat, he crushed a two-run, 428-foot homer over the right-field fence that left his bat at 109 mph, marking the first multi-home run game of his career. When he returned to the dugout, Vasil was waiting with a few more celebratory taps on the head from his now-famous magic wand.

A Full Team Effort

But giving all the credit to the wand is dismissing the reality. The White Sox have legitimate talent, and for the first time in years, are doing the little things right. Check the box score after almost any White Sox win and you’ll find contributions throughout the lineup, with a different hero seeming to emerge every night. They play hard, hustle down the line, and never quit. The series victory over the Cubs was the perfect example.

Davis Martin took the ball Saturday already in rare company, becoming just the sixth pitcher in MLB history to record five wins, throw at least 50 innings, and strike out more than 50 batters while allowing nine earned runs or fewer through his first eight starts.

The Chicago Cubs found out the hard way why he belongs in that group. Martin carved through their lineup for six innings, striking out seven and allowing just one run en route to his sixth win of the season.

But it wasn’t just the star players who shone over the weekend; it was the supporting cast as well.

Andrew Benintendi hit his third home run of the season after adding tape to his helmet to mimic Sam Antonacci, who has worn tape on his helmet since his JUCO days as a superstition. He followed that up with three hits and a run scored on Sunday.

Tristan Peters made a diving catch in center field on Saturday, then delivered the biggest swing of his young career, launching his first major league home run, a three-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that turned a 4-4 tie into a 7-4 White Sox lead.

It seemed like the perfect feel-good story to cap off the series. But the baseball Gods had other plans. The Cubs mounted a rally in the ninth, thanks to a walk and a Miguel Vargas throwing error, setting up a Michael Conforto three-run homer off of Seranthony Dominguez in the ninth.

That type of gut punch would have sunk the White Sox in recent years. But Will Venable’s boys don’t quit. Even after the Chicago Cubs grabbed the lead in the 10th, White Sox reliever Tyler Davis limited the damage, striking out Seiya Suzuki with the bases loaded to end the threat.

Benintendi then executed a perfect bunt to open the bottom half of the frame, moving the automatic runner 90 feet from home.

Quero Ends A Slump And Instant Classic In One Swing

To say nobody needed a big moment more than Quero is an understatement.

The 23-year-old is in the midst of a miserable start to the season. In his first 86 at-bats, he had yet to hit a home run, and was batting just .151 with a .410 OPS and had yet to record an extra base hit. As a result, he was left out of the White Sox lineup in the first two games of the series.

But Quero was determined to make an impact. He tried to visualize a good game before taking the field, and even told a fan on social media that he would hit a walk-off.

When he stepped into the box in the bottom of the 10th, he already had two hits on the day. But Cubs left-hander Ryan Rolison presented a different kind of test. Up to that point, Quero had just one hit against lefties in 37 plate appearances this season.

But Quero took the first pitch he saw from Rolison and sent it 407-feet, clearing the left field wall and sending the over 38,000 fans in attendance into a frenzy.

With the White Sox scheduled to give away a Quero bobblehead in two weeks, there were questions about whether he’d still be on the roster or sent down to Charlotte once Kyle Teel returned. But one thing is certain: his swing in the 10th inning will be replayed on the South Side for years to come.

The White Sox are no longer the laughing stock of the MLB. The players come to the ballpark expecting to win, fans are starting to believe, and opponents are slowly gaining respect.

But don’t just take my word for it. Just ask Cubs centerfielder Pete-Crow Armstrong.

“I appreciate how a lot of them play. It’s a good ballclub, and they’re playing good baseball,” Armstrong told reporters after Sunday’s game. “It’s good for the city that they’ve got two good teams going and having a lot of success this year.”