White Sox manager Robin Ventura ejected

The Chicago White Sox, coming off a three game sweep of the struggling Los Angeles Angels, face the surging Chicago Cubs who are winners of nine of their last 10 and 13 of their past 15. “We’re playing to our potential right now”. Coghlan gave the Cubs an early 4-2 lead with a three-run blast off Jeff Samardzija in the third inning. Castro is hitting. 242 after going 3-for-4 in the Cubs’ 6-5 win Friday. That’s how much Utley is owed for the last part of his $15-million contract for 2015. With Kyle Schwarber in left field now, he would have nowhere else to go if the team acquired Utley.

Pedro Strop escaped a first-and-second jam in the eighth, striking out Adam Eaton and Tyler Saladino to end the inning.

Both teams were scoreless in the second, though not without some excitement in the bottom of the inning. But two swings by Coghlan and Rizzo with two out in the fifth put the Cubs back on top, 6-5.

Cubs: Manager Joe Maddon said RHP Rafael Soriano (right shoulder inflammation) is getting close to pitching in simulated games and will then go on a rehab assignment.

2 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Av.Garcia was hit by a pitch. “I didn’t hear Melky [Cabrera] and I didn’t really know where he was, so the center fielder in me said I need to catch the ball here”. Clayton Richard was summoned from the bullpen to finish the inning, and sandwiched a base hit between a force out and a strike out. 351 with 16 RBIs since July 12 while hitting with runners in scoring position.

Fighting back tears, Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell said Friday that he had a “highly curable” form of cancer and has taken a medical leave for the rest of the season to deal with lymphoma. The one positive from that outing was that he managed to strike out 8. “The only thing I’m stuck on is that throw [to first] in the second inning”. “It wasn’t our sharpest game, but I’ll take it”.

Arrieta, who entered Saturday’s game with a 7-1 record and 1.23 ERA in his last 10 starts, overcame some miscues by his teammates to navigate through two jams before departing after 105 pitches. Addison Russell doubled twice and scored twice.

Before I do the three stars, just a couple of quick notes. A resurgent Dexter Fowler has posted a.292/.444/.490 slash line over his last 26 games, reaching base 55 times. It’s good to see him have a good day at the plate. He still might have a major role to play on this team down the stretch. “Just throw strikes and win games, just give my team a chance to win”. Arrieta chased Garcia toward third before throwing, but Kris Bryant dropped the throw.

If that’s the present worst-case scenario for healthy starters who received a qualifying offer, I can’t imagine that’d be enough to scare off a fully functioning pitcher. Today he came in and stopped the bleeding, and allowed the Cubs to re-take the lead.

Anthony Rizzo: Boy, it seems this guy is in the highlight reels every night. But as hot as they’ve been, they’ve also had some fortuitous luck in terms of opposing pitchers they’ve drawn.