Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock baseball, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.
-Ian Faith
The Sox pulled out another win against the Cubs this evening, securing their grip on the BP Cup, and sneaking right into 2nd place in the AL Central with their 11th straight win!
In The Battle of the Sweaty Latinos, neither Garcia nor Silva came away victorious despite valiant perspiratory efforts on both parts; each only allowing 2 runs over 7 and 6 innings of work, respectively.
The Cubs' first run came when they tied the game in the top of the 6th; only to have the Sox answer them with a run in the bottom of the inning to take back the lead (PK scored on an Alexei sac fly).
Garcia pitched another impressive game, holding the Cubs scoreless through 5, with 5 strikeouts and allowing 8 hits and no walks over 7. He didn't give up his second run until the 7th inning - a solo shot off the bat of Aramis Ramirez to tie the game at 2.
Putz held the game in the 8th, making way for some 8th-inning home run heroics for Paulie, who practically told Cubs fans to Lick His Love Pump with a rocket to left field.
PK seems to enjoy being the 8th-inning hero. Coincidentally, I also enjoy this.
His solo homer broke the tie and gave Thornton the opportunity for the save.
After one out, Thorny gave up a walk to Aramis Ramirez in the 9th, but clearly did so to set up the Vizquel-Beckham-Konerko game-ending DP.
I luuuuuuv game-ending double plays.
I also big puffy heart Alex Rios, who batted in Beckham from third base with 2 outs in the 3rd. As MarketMaker mentioned in the gamethread, this is the difference in the Sox of late...
Beckham led off the inning with a triple and proceeded to sit on 3rd base through 2 easy outs. Hope quickly dimmed of course, but Rios came up to the plate and hit a single up the middle to bring Beckham home and give the Sox the first run of the ballgame.
Don't let anyone tell you differently. Gazelles are good!
Tomorrow is Dempster v Danks, and a shot at another sweep. May as well get #12 since this is the last we're going to see of the NL.
And believe me, the pleasure has been entirely on this side of the table.
*Trooper pointed out in the gt: not only the first 11 game streak since 61, but the first 15 of 16 since 61, when they won 19 of 20 in june (7W, 1L, 12W)