CHICAGO -- The two Chicago baseball teams are clearly going in different directions. The Cubs sold at last week¡¯s Trade Deadline, while the White Sox bought to bolster what was already a World Series-contending roster.

The North Siders and South Siders even struck a couple of deals with each other, the most important of which was the Cubs sending closer Craig Kimbrel to the White Sox to create what¡¯s been discussed as arguably the best bullpen in baseball.

On Friday afternoon, Kimbrel returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in a Sox uniform, and though his old Cubs teammates want to see him succeed, they still gave Kimbrel a reminder of the team he came from in an 8-6 loss to the White Sox.

As he spoke to reporters prior to the opener of the Crosstown Series, Cubs manager David Ross was asked about Kimbrel¡¯s return to the North Side of the city.

¡°Hopefully he's not running out [of the bullpen],¡± Ross said. ¡°It would be nice to keep him on the shelf for three days.¡±

If Ross¡¯ team can put together another inning against Kimbrel like the one it did on Friday, the skipper might want to rethink how little he wants to see his former closer the rest of the weekend.

Kimbrel was called upon to hold down a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth, with Matt Duffy at the plate. On a 2-1 fastball, Duffy lined a single to left field. Ian Happ was then retired by Kimbrel for out No. 1 on a fly ball to left. The next two batters were new faces to Kimbrel: Frank Schwindel (recalled from Triple-A Iowa on July 30) and Greg Deichmann (who singled in the fourth in his Major League debut). Schwindel found the outfield grass, singling to center field before Deichmann went down on a popup to short.

That brought up Andrew Romine, the 35-year-old shortstop who just made his season debut on Saturday. Romine admitted he isn¡¯t too familiar with Kimbrel personally. He wasn¡¯t with the big league club while Kimbrel was around, and he remembers maybe facing Kimbrel in Spring Training before.

However, the magnitude of the moment wasn¡¯t lost on Romine.

¡°I'm no dummy,¡± he said. ¡°I know who's on the mound when I'm coming up in that situation, so I was really just trying to find a hole somewhere, trying to get a pitch that I could do something with.¡±

Romine worked a full count, and then -- having gone homerless in the big leagues since 2017 -- launched a three-run shot off Kimbrel into the right-center bleachers to tie the game. The dinger traveled a Statcast-projected 365 feet, had an exit velocity of 94.1 mph and would¡¯ve been a home run in 10 of 30 Major League ballparks, and yet the odds went the Cubs¡¯ way with their old closer on the mound. For what it's worth, Codi Heuer -- acquired in the Kimbrel trade -- pitched a scoreless ninth.

¡°I know [Kimbrel] throws hard. Trying to get on that fastball if he came inside, which he did, and I managed to get the barrel on it,¡± Romine said. ¡°These short fences kind of helped a little bit, but you know, a home run's a home run.¡±

A single by Robinson Chirinos one batter later, and Kimbrel was out of the game.

¡°[Kimbrel] said he tugged it a little bit. He was trying to go away, and he got it where the guy could hit it out of the park,¡± White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. ¡°But it happens when you would think that a save is going to be routine. It's never routine. And the way we're playing it now, the eighth inning is like the ninth, right? He's got to get three outs. It just shows you how difficult that job is.¡±

Though the rally didn¡¯t result in a win, the fight shown from some of the new faces like Romine still impressed the Cubs¡¯ longest-tenured player, Kyle Hendricks.

¡°It's just fun to see young guys -- and older guys -- just get opportunities that may not have been here,¡± said Hendricks, who threw six innings and gave up two runs in a no-decision and hasn't taken a loss since May 9. ¡°Same thing happened for me. I got an opportunity back in '14 because of a similar situation to this. So yeah, it's just really cool that guys are coming up, they're making the most of it. It's bringing a lot of energy to the club.¡±