DETROIT — The White Sox didn’t hear much vitriol from the home crowd during their sweep of the Tigers, which they capped with a 7-5 victory Sunday. Despite putting a dent in the Tigers’ playoff hopes, the first-place Sox didn’t quite draw the fans’ ire.
They don’t need to be in first to get Cubs fans’ dander up, though. The Sox would get an earful at Wrigley Field just for being there, but they’re especially at risk this week after Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong took a tongue-lashing at Rate Field in May.
“I think we know what the crowd’s going to be like,” manager Will Venable said after his team took a season-high 5½-game lead in the American League Central. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
That might depend on your point of view. Sox outfielders figure to bear the brunt of the abuse after a woman sitting in the Rate Field picnic area May 17 yelled “You suck!” at Crow-Armstrong, whose profane response earned him a $5,000 fine from MLB.
If fans follow baseball’s old unwritten rules, whereby a pitcher retaliates for a hit batter by plunking that player’s counterpart, Brenton Doyle and Tristan Peters better pack earplugs in their pockets.
Peters, for one, has no idea what’s coming. The series opener Monday will be his first game at the not-always Friendly Confines.
“I really don’t know what to expect,” he said. “But I’m excited.”
Doyle has a better idea. He has played on the North Side eight times with the Rockies. In his last game there in May 2025, Doyle hit a tying home run in the seventh inning off Cade Horton that traveled 371 feet, landing in the front row of the left-field bleachers.
“The fans definitely get loud out there,” he said. “It’s a cool experience, the ivy and everything. The energy is also super great. They have some passionate fans there, and they let you know about it.”
Has he ever talked with any bleacher bums?
“No. No conversations,” he said.
That’s probably for the best.
Had Crow-Armstrong kept his mouth shut, he could’ve saved himself some cash.
First baseman Munetaka Murakami, whose two-run homer in the seventh Sunday put the Sox ahead to stay, has a good idea of what awaits in his first visit to Wrigley.
“It’ll be crazy,” he said through an interpreter. “The last series at Rate Field was obviously a great series with big crowds. It’s going to be a dogfight, but we’re gonna be confident.”
Starter Sean Burke, who battled through 4⅓ innings to keep the Sox in the game, has pitched at Wrigley once, allowing five earned runs in 4 ⅔ innings of a Sox loss in May 2025.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “Honestly, I’m a little bummed I’m not pitching in it. It’s going to be cool to watch as a bystander and take in the environment.”
Truth be told, there will be plenty of Sox fans in attendance, certainly in the bleachers. So Crow-Armstrong might not exactly be spared from more heckling.
The best thing the Sox can do is take care of business the way they did against the Tigers, whose successful run despite trading top pitchers Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize was short-lived. Though Venable doesn’t see the Sox’ sweep as a statement, it most definitely is.
“Call it whatever you want,” he said. “I’m just so proud of the group.”
He also doesn’t see his team as “surprising,” though it most definitely is.
“Really from spring training, these guys believed, and they continue to believe,” he said. “We know what’s ahead of us here. But we’re not into making statements.”
Cubs fans will have plenty of those ready to go, and the Sox’ best response would be a finger pressed to their lips.
Not that finger!