CHICAGO – Just when it looked as if Cubs right-hander Edwin Jackson had begun to regain his form Tuesday night against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, his outing was washed out by rain.
Jackson was cruising along in the bottom of the third inning, having retired seven of the first eight batters he faced, including three strikeouts, when Game 2 of the four-game crosstown series with the White Sox was postponed because of a downpour.
No make-up date has been announced.
"It's just one of those things, sometimes when you have the kind of season I'm having, that's how it is, you feel good and something happens, and you feel bad and something happens," Jackson said.
Even though Jackson's effort ultimately didn't count, Cubs manager Dale Sveum liked what he saw from his struggling pitcher.
"He came out throwing the ball really well, obviously with a lot of conviction and velocity from the get-go, 92-93 mph cutters as well as his fastball at 96," Sveum said. "That's kind of the guy we want to go out there all the time, the 86-87 mph sliders and velocity from the get-go and see what happens from there."
Jackson's stellar effort wasn't the only one wasted. So too was Wellington Castillo's two-run homer in the top of the second that had staked Jackson to a 2-0 lead.
"At the end of the day, all that matters is to keep playing, to have the opportunity to be here and to be in the lineup tomorrow," Castillo said.
Jackson (1-8) had come into the game with losses in seven of his eight decisions this season. With the way he started Tuesday, he felt he was on his way to finally breaking out of his slump.
"I felt pretty good tonight, pretty loose from the beginning," Jackson said. "I felt like I could come out and attacked the strike zone hard and down."
Perhaps the only player on either team to benefit from the rainout was White Sox starter Chris Sale (5-2). The hard-throwing lefty had a streak of 23 scoreless innings coming in. Castro's homer snapped it but the rainout restored the spurt.
Sale, who missed his last start due to tendonitis in his left posterior shoulder, felt good even with the short work and reported no issues.
"I pretty much look at this as kind of an extended bullpen," Sale said. "I don't think I threw but 40 (37 to be exact) pitches. I should be able to bounce back pretty quick."
Sveum said his team had been looking forward to facing Sale Tuesday.
"You hate to waste any time when you get up 2-0 against a pitcher like Sale and hopefully you hang on. If you score two and hopefully a couple more like that, then you've done your share off a guy like that. It's too bad the game had to be canceled that quick, but we knew that rain was coming."
The series shifts to Wrigley Field for a pair of afternoon games (1:20 p.m.) on Wednesday and Thursday. The scheduled pitchers remain the same for Wednesday's game, right-hander Scott Feldman (4-4, 2.80) for the Cubs vs. lefty John Danks (0-0, 4.50).
NOTES: The White Sox have won eight of the last 12 meetings with the Cubs, and lead the overall series 49-42. . Coming into Tuesday's game, Cubs pitchers were leading the Major Leagues in a unique category: RBIs, with 15. . The game was cancelled so quickly that an official attendance number was never announced.
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