Sox Take Over Crosstown Series

With this rubber match between the Sox and Cubs, possibly for the year with the rainout only to be made up if there are playoff chances, it looked to be another offensive day from the start after the past 2 days of  high offensive days.  The only team that actually had an offense going was the Sox offense.  The Cubs horrible defense only helped them take today's game and the Sox took advantage of that.

With both pitchers breezing through the lineups through the first inning, Danks giving up one hit  and Zambrano none, Cubs came up looking for some offense and blew the chance that was handed to them.  Danks got Soto to ground out but then allowed a single to Ryan Freel. With Freel on first, Danks tried keeping him close and attempting pickoffs, but that came back to bite him when he threw one too low for Konerko as it got away and Freel moved into 2nd.  With Danks struck out Fukudome to make it 2 outs.  Freel stole 3rd without a throw from catcher AJ Pierzynski, but Andres Blanco failed to push the run across as he popped out to Alexei Ramirez.  The Sox got their first hit in the 2nd, when Konerko doubled to deep left center and Getz walked, but they were unable to push across any runs.

Sox drew first blood for the third straight day against the Cubs, this time in the 3rd inning.  It started off with DeWayne Wise grounding out 2nd, but Scott Podsednik got on base when he was hit by a pitch on the knee.  With 1 on and 1 out, Ramirez came up to bat and was much more patient than he has been lately, as he drew more pitches and allowed Podsednik to lean towards 2nd and get into the head of Zambrano.  Zambrano threw a hanging slider and Ramirez just took advantage of it as he hit it out of the park to left center to put the Sox up 2-0.

In the 4th, the Cubs offensive woes continued as Lee started off the inning with a single, but Jake Fox hit a grounder to Gordon Beckham who went around the horn to get the double play.  With the Sox already up 2-0, they were looking to extend their lead as they did when A.J. Pierzynski led it off with a single to center.  Gordon Beckham helped move A.J. over to third with a single to right on a hit and run play after Chris Getz flew out to center.  With 2 on and 1 out, DeWayne Wise drove in A.J. when he singled to second, where Blanco just knocked down the ball.  Gordon Beckham was picked off at second after a couple of tries from Zambrano and Podsednik grounded out to third to end the inning.

The Cubs continued to struggle to plate runs as Soriano led off with a double in the 6th and Theriot grounded to second to move Soriano to third.  With one out, Bradley struck out to make it 2 outs.  Danks got into a bigger jam as he walked both Lee and Fox.  Danks worked his way out of the jam by getting Soto to ground out to Ramirez at shortstop, who got Lee out at 3rd on the force. The Sox offense continued to hit well as the Cubs defense continued to struggle as they have most of the day.  Chris Getz led the 6th off with a stand up double to right field and Beckham sacrificed himself to Zambrano to move Getz over to 3rd.  With DeWayne Wise up, Getz stole home easily as Zambrano attempted to throw a pitchout, but missed horribly.  Wise was hit by the very next pitch as Zambrano could not control his emotions.  Ozzie Guillen came out of the dugout to check on Wise and half of the White Sox team left with him as emotions rose.  With Podsednik up to bat, Wise stole 2nd and Podsednik drew a walk as Zambrano lost his control.  David Patton then came in to replace Zambrano.  Ramirez hit a high one between Theriot and Soriano that should have been a pop out, but the Cubs struggled to get a read on it.  With bases loaded, Dye hit a pop out to Theriot in short left and the infield fly rule was called, even though Theriot nor Freel were facing home, but Theriot completely failed to even get a glove on the ball.  Theriot bobbled the ball and Wise sprinted home to put the Sox up 5-0.

In the 7th, Danks hit Freel on the third pitch to put him on.  Warnings were finally issued to both sides.  Cubs failed to push across anything as Fukudome fouled out to Beckham, Blanco grounded into a force out where Freel was out at second, and Soriano struck out swinging.  Danks ran his pitch count to 110 and was replaced by Linebrink in the 8th.  Danks finished the day with 7 innings pitched, 4 hits given up, 5 strikeouts, 4 walks, but has a 0.00 ERA for the day to show for the hard work.

With Linebrink pitching in the 8th, he was looking to show the Cubs he wasn't such an easy pitcher to hit, and he did that by striking out the side of Theriot, Bradley, and Lee.  In the 8th, Dye added one more insurance run by hitting a homerun to right center field.  Linebrink came out in the ninth to end the game and he blew through the Cubs lineup with Fox grounding out to Ramirez, Soto flying out to Podsednik near the wall, and striking out Freel on 5 pitches.

With this game over and finished with the Sox winning 6-0, the Sox now lead the interleague series again with a record of 36-35 in the overall series.  The Sox have also outscored the Cubs 350-341.  The only way the Cubs can tie up the series now the makeup day for the rainout of June 16.  This makeup game will be played on September 3rd or September 10th, these are the two mutual days for the Sox and Cubs.  This would either would extend a rough 10-game road trip that the Sox would have to deal with to Boston, New York, and Minnesota to 11 games if played on Sept. 3, or give the White Sox an extra game before leaving for a West Coast road trip on Sept. 10.