Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Alex Bregman walks it off to lead Cubs to 4-3 win over White Sox

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote broke down the Cubs' 4-3 walk-off win against the White Sox on Tuesday at Wrigley Field.

Yeah, that just didn't sound any better the next day either, and that's probably my third or fourth. Listen to that discussion. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, The Score. We are coming to you live from the Cubby Bear today, courtesy of our friends with Yingling, ahead of the Crosstown series finale. If you're going to the game, come by, say hi. We will be here until 1245, followed by Zach Zadman's pregame show until first pitch. It is all brought to you by Yingling Flight, the next generation. of light beer.

We're already happy to see that we're not the only ones here. We got some early risers getting ready for the game. In fact, Sam Antanachi is sitting at the bar. Oh, that's just his jersey. Careful. Don't get hit by a pitch. Careful. Yeah, yes.

Careful, Sam Antanachi, Jersey. Don't go hanging over the plate with your elbow and then get hit in the elbow pad. No, wait a minute. He likes that. Sam Antanachi likes getting hit by pitches. I'm worried sick about Sam Antoni. Well, Colson Montgomery's right behind us. Oh, yeah.

We got a lot of... Multiple Montgomery. Yeah, it's number 12 Montgomery. I can say flare. That's appropriate, right? I think it is. I think it is. Yeah.

Can never have enough flare. Nicely done, Sam Antanachi. We look forward to seeing you play tonight. I just hope he doesn't lean into anything over there. I know. When you have the Sam Antanaj jersey on, you might lean into something. Well, you won't be feeling a pain.

I just see him already with a social sparkler. It's a guzzling those beers over there. But this is a good example. There was a pause this morning. I love that sound. I'm sorry. I couldn't hear. I know we're still working on the mix a little bit.

It's a team sport. If you're mad about it, you know, take your ass to go play, you know, tennis or play an individual sport. Oh, yeah, yeah, Antonacci has to the job. His tone is so pleasant. It's the tone. Go out there, take your ass. I think he also had trouble figuring out what wasn't a team sport because he's so used to playing team sports there. That's fair.

Yeah. That's fair. Look, golf. Well, golf can be a team sport. Right. That's the thing. Well, yeah, there was the team sport. concept, but I think it got absorbed or something. The point is there's a buzz here. Already. It is

10.09 in the morning. People are getting ready for game three of Cross Town. I'm not surprised at all, given what we've seen the last two games on the north side, given what we saw in the three games on the south side. The people are up. They are buzzing. They are ready and they are ready for this day game. How about the crowd that stayed last night through the hour and a half rain delay? You know, they're singing, first of all, they played Bear Down Chicago Bears. That was tremendous. That's on our score social media pages, the score Chicago, if you want to check it out. And then they also had the tarps off who infiltrated the expensive seats, which I also loved. Did they get kicked out?

How did that work? Because first of all, how do they get down there and how they get the people who are sitting there get their seats back? Is that just strictly during the rain delay? I was trying to figure that out. I'm not sure. Yeah, the ingress and egress, if you will, was not discussed. Wait, are we just dismissing the possibility that those were their seats? Are you guys just assuming that those guys were not having?

actually sitting in those seats? Something changed then in Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde fashion when the rain delay came on if those were indeed their seats. Because that was a very different type of crowd than I saw before and after the rain. I know at stadiums, or I don't know necessarily Riggly Field, but there are some ballpark stadiums that allow for fans in situations where the lower bowl, like if there's people not down there or rain delays or whatever, they allow people to push down. I have no idea if that's the case of Riggly Field.

I am just going to assume that they had those seats. Yes, okay, that's fair. My fault, 1917 ticket holders. I underestimated your game. Nicely done with tarps off. But either way, a different vibe than what we saw, I think even the day before. But same results. PCA has a lead-off home run.

The Cubs walk it off, thanks to Alex Bregman, and the Cubs win yet again. The rain delay, I think, probably helped the Cubs and hurt the White Sox. And I think also credit is due because it wasn't the original plan. But my goodness, did Javier Aside and Eric Fetty go out there and do their absolute best? I thought that those two really helped tell the story of success in this game. And then Javier aside, when I saw him walking off of the mound to the Wrigley crowd after going three innings and three very hard-earned innings when you consider Kevin Gossman had to leave with that hand cramp, that was something to see. One of those games were both he and Eric Fetty

should deserve and get their flowers today. It's disappointing. if you are a white-sox fan, certainly, and if you're on a team where you feel like your bullpen was already stretched thin, your starting rotation was stretched thin, to get that type of performance from Eric Fetty, where he goes out and gives you four and two-thirds

bulk innings, no runs, only gives up three hits, walks a couple, and strikes out five. I know Cubs fans had to be losing their mind out by out. Like, wait, Eric Fetty, we can't solve Eric Fetty, a guy who got demoted to the bullpen, and yet here he was. And the thing is,

And the thing is, the White Sox for the second straight game, had a lead, blew a lead. And then their bullpen, because it's still stretched in from what happened over the weekend in the series sweep against Detroit. They just had to eat it. Sometimes you just have to eat it. And you have to hope that the guy that's out there, this time, Richards, could hold it off. And he could not survive the top of the Cubs order.

On the Javier Assad side of things, and I agree with you on Eric Thetty, but the fact that he immediately comes in, and after the Gosman nightmare, by the way, and I know we're going to talk about that, and I'd like to tell you guys how I was feeling when that Gosman stuff was going on, when we do indeed address that in earnest. But he comes out, Javier Assad, boom, induces a double play,

restores order for yet another starter. It reminded me of this Assad performance. The one I'm going to talk about was actually better, but it reminded me of guys, and this feels like seasons ago because the player doesn't even play here anymore. Do we remember June 7th in San Diego when James and Tyone pitched one inning and then he was hurt? I don't even think he made it through an inning.

In comes Javier Assad, pitches six shutout innings. He has been a pitcher this year that has restored order. I don't know if anybody has, on the Cubs, done their job better or job? Jobs, plural, better than Javier Assad has done for the Chicago Cubs this year. I know. It was a terrific outing for Assad. And I'll say this.

I understand, like, a lot of people are like, why not use him more? Why does he keep going down to the minors? Sometimes, this is a case of good managing by Craig Counsel. Craig Counsel knows how to use Javier Assad. Understands that there are limitations sometimes of Javier Assad as well. Maybe it's not fair. Maybe he should be a fourth or fifth pitcher in somebody. starting rotation, but they have managed him well whether Javier Asad likes it or not.

No, I think Javier Assad was as valuable yesterday to the Cubs as Alex Bregman, because he was able to at least keep the socks runners at bay as we saw. He goes three innings. And yeah, the Kevin Gossman thing, I think we're going to get into a little bit more in depth in our second segment because Tommy Hadovy was really good this morning on Mully and Ha talking about it. Gossman gives out three earned runs and kind of looked like the pitcher a little bit that we saw in his start against the nationals that second timeout, not the one we saw against

the Royals in his first timeout. But I think that is so difficult to do what he did, to come in in the ways that he is asked to perform. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a clean inning. Doesn't necessarily have to be with base runners or not with base runners. Just be the Band-Aid. And he does it so well. And even when they took him out, you know, it was after that first inning or the first out of the next inning after he had thrown three. The crowd cheering him on and just, I don't even think he realized

in the moment until he almost got to the dugout how much they were cheering for him. He was hyped up himself. You know, like he was hyping up himself as he was walking off. And I think only then after a couple steps, did he acknowledge the crowd who was very much giving him his flowers? He deserved every

bit of that last night. I think you can sum it up. If you just look at simple stats for a size, period. Understand this. He has a 1.2 B war. Do you know how many Cubs pitchers have a higher B war than Javier Assad? There are two of them and one of them, well

he's not pitching right now. Ben Brown has a 2.2 war this season. Shodemanauga has a 1.6 war. Nobody else on that staff is higher than Javierasad in the motley roles that he plays. That's something that tells you exactly

how effective he has been in whatever role he's been asked to do. And on whatever notice he's been asked to do it on. Yeah, that's really hard. I mean, that's really difficult. That's why I believe he's done his job better than anybody else on the team. Doesn't mean he's the most valuable player on the team. I think we know who the most valuable player on the team is,

and that's the guy that, again, started the game with a home run. What's up, everybody? What's going on, PCA? Yeah, what's up, Pete? That was pretty good. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The first inning, two more home runs for the Cubs, and you're like, here we go again.

this series has just been absolutely deluxe so far this year. What will they have in store today? Probably like a 2-1 game or something like that. No, no, no, no. There's no way. But I think in the department of that guy needed that, once again, Alex Bregman pulls through the two-out hitting, especially, you know, credits of the Cubs,

and then how Bregman was able to stay within himself and get the walk off, that's the guy you want to see. If it's not Pekro Armstrong, you want to see it be some combination. Also, nice to see Michael Bush get the whole whole thing. run last night. That was absolutely valuable. Great to watch. But Alex Bregman coming through. I think he's made adjustments at the plate. I think there's no better person to talk about the third basement with than Ron Coomer, who will join us at 11, thanks in part to our partners at yingling. But let's listen to what Alex Bregman told Taylor McGregor about how he was able to stay and hang with him through that

hour and a half rain delay. Hour and a half rain delay. How do you stay ready for a moment like that? Honestly, just went inside and had some pizza in a document pepper. What kind of pizza? It's a little bit harder for us to answer the phones when we're at the cubby bear, but you know, we're around. You can call us, you can text us that way. We're also on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. The mob is up and chatting.

And our chat is active on YouTube as well. The Score Chicago is our address there. C.S. Henderson is here as our engineer. We've got Miles as well, one of our promotions crew, who's helping now. We also have Connor O'Donnell in the house today at the Covey Bear. Cody Westerlin, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis help us out too. So coming up next, let's listen to what Tommy Hottavy had to say about Kevin Gossman's unfortunate cramp in his non-throwing hand and just some of the pitching moves that were made that we'll take a deeper look at. That's next.