The Cubs went to the South Side of Chicago and did what they needed to do.

The Cubs defeated the White Sox 3-1 Saturday night. It wasn’t pretty much of the time, but the team did what they came for in this series — a sweep, and thus a sweep of the season series against their crosstown rivals for the first time since 2013.

The Sox scored first in this game thanks in part to a rare error by Nico Hoerner on what should have been a routine ground ball. Nico just booted it, possibly because Miguel Vargas, a fast runner, was headed down the line. A single, fielder’s choice and another hit gave the Sox a 1-0 lead.

Justin Steele then held that through six innings of work. Steele didn’t have his best stuff but it was enough for six innings on 101 pitches (72 strikes). He struck out eight [VIDEO].

Here’s a summary of Steele’s outing [VIDEO].

While all that was going on, the Cubs were squandering scoring chances. They left RISP in the first, third and fourth innings (six LOB total in the first four innings) before finally breaking through in the fifth. With two out, Cody Bellinger singled and Isaac Paredes doubled him in [VIDEO].

The tie remained intact through the seventh. A leadoff single by Dansby Swanson in the sixth was his 1,000th career hit [VIDEO].

Congrats to Dansby on that milestone, though he was stranded. In the seventh, the Cubs again left a runner in scoring position after Michael Busch led off the inning with a walk.

Porter Hodge, who has recently become a dependable leverage reliever, threw a 1-2-3 seventh. He got help on this great diving catch by Nico [VIDEO].

The Cubs finally broke through with the game-winning rally in the eighth. Hoerner led off with a walk and Swanson singled him to second. Pete Crow-Armstrong sacrificed both runners up a base, and then Miguel Amaya became the Cubs’ hitting hero of the evening [VIDEO].

Amaya’s two-run single, his second hit of the game, made it 3-1 Cubs. Another single by Ian Happ moved Amaya to third, and then this happened [VIDEO].

With the Sox infield pulled in, the contact play was on and Michael Busch’s grounder to second resulted in Amaya being thrown out at the plate on a close play.

So it was up to the Cubs pen to get six outs with a two-run lead.

Jorge Lopez threw a scoreless eighth even while allowing a single and a walk.

Don’t do this, folks. Fans going on the field is now a felony charge in Chicago.

Back to the game: Hector did not make things easy on himself when he dropped a throw at first base on what should have been a routine first out of the inning. But then Neris got Lenyn Sosa to fly to center and struck out Luis Robert Jr. Robert, who is ostensibly the Sox’ best player, is having a miserable year at the plate and looked particularly lost in this game, striking out three times.

That brought up Andrew Benintendi, who had homered twice on Friday.

Here’s the final out of the game [VIDEO].

I realize that clip ends pretty abruptly, but yes, Neris did strike out Benintendi for his 17th save. Despite some high-wire acts, Neris has now converted seven straight save chances dating to June 29. And Hodge recorded his first MLB win.

And as I said in the headline to this recap, the Cubs took care of business Saturday evening. They came to this series really needing to win both games, and they did so. That gives the team a four-game winning streak and eight in their last 10. With the Mets’ loss to the Mariners Saturday, the Mets drop out of the third wild card spot, now inhabited by the Braves, who the Cubs train by 3½ games. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but there are three other teams ahead of them (Mets, Giants, Cardinals). A playoff spot is still an uphill climb, but at least the Cubs are playing good ball.

Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].

Two interesting notes on this game and series from BCB’s JohnW53:

With the Cubs winning and Sox losing, both teams are one game below .500 — the Cubs this year (59-60) and the Sox in all their regular-season games since they began play in 1901 (9,581-9,582-103). This is the first time the Sox have been below .500 since June 17, 1956. The Cubs never have been below .500 in their 149-season history.

……….

This was only the second game since 1993 in which the Cubs finished with exactly nine hits and six walks but scored just three runs. They lost that one, 4-3, to the Mets at New York. They have played 19 such games since 1901, winning 10 and losing nine. Their previous win was by 3-2 at home vs. the Giants on Sept. 6, 1991.

The Cubs will enjoy their rare Sunday off day and then head to Cleveland for a three-game set against the Guardians. This might be a good time for the Cubs to face the Guardians, who lost seven straight before defeating the Twins on Saturday. Shōta Imanaga will start the series opener Monday in Cleveland and the Guardians will counter with righthander Ben Lively. Game time Monday is 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.