Sox finish off Cubs

The Sox bats came through again in today's 6-0 blanking, finishing the three game sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley Field. It is the first sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley since 1999 and the first sweep of the Cubs since 2008.

This series saw the Sox hit a total of eight home runs.

For the second day in a row Sox hitters hit back to back blasts. In the fourth inning, Gordon Beckham led off with his 4th home run of the season. Adam Dunn then blasted his 14th home run of the year to make it 2-0 lead.

The home run barrage continued the next inning when Tyler Flowers absolutely killed a Paul Maholm offering onto Waveland Ave for a 3-0 lead.

Jake Peavy took the run support in stride and still kept the Cubs off the board. The only inning were Jake had issues was in the fourth. He escaped a bases loaded two out situation by getting Adrian Cardenas to pop out to Alexei Ramirez. All in all, Jake was back to his stellar 2012 self, pitching 6 1/3 innings  giving up three hits and striking out seven.

Two runs were added in the 7th inning and one more for good measure in the 9th to polish off the sweep and giving the Sox their fourth win in a row evening their record at 21-21.

Another nice sight to see was the return of Jesse Crain off the DL. Jesse came on with one on and one out in the 8th striking out the first batter he faced in Starlin Castro, then walking back to back hitters before striking out Ian Stewart to end the Cubs threat.

The Sox get an off day on Monday before they open a six game homestand against the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. Hopefully the Sox can start their winning ways at home as they only find themselves 2 1/2 games out of first.

Sox/Cubs pregame

The Crosstown series begins at Wrigley today with little fanfare. The Cubs find themselves at the bottom of the NL Central and the Sox are under .500 in a weak AL Central.

This morning Cubs nation was given devastating news in Kerry Wood announcing his retirement and will make his final appearance in today's game.

The face of Cubs failure and ineptitude is walking away after the temper-tantrum he threw last week.

Chicago media will remind us Wood struck out 20 batters in a single game - which will go down as the greatest moment in Western Civilization. Cubs fans will tell us how he only wanted to be a Cub and how he hit a home run in game 7 of the 2003 NLCS. I'd like to remind people Wood is the most overrated Chicago athlete of all time.

So as Wood will probably be paraded out on the field today to a emotional Cubs crowd, most will forget about the two half-assed baseball teams that are about to take the field.

Adam Dunn is supposed to replace Dayan Viciedo in LF. Both guys have been hot with the bat so losing one on a team that struggles to score could be rough.

Today's game has a 1:20 start. Saturday is a night game televised on FOX. Sunday is back to the usual 1:20 start time.

What the hell was that?

Today was one of those games where you check the score in the 6th inning and you see the Sox are winning 6-0 and you say to yourself, "Ah cool. There's no way they blow this game." Then a while later you think the game should be over and you check the score again and see they've blown that six run lead and it's now 10-6 in favor of the other team and you say to yourself, "What the fuck?"

In short, Jake Peavy was cruising for five innings then all hell broke loose.

The 6th inning started off with a single by Andy Dirks then a home run by Miguel Cabrera to make it a 6-2 Sox lead. Prince Fielder followed with a double then advanced to third on a ground out.

There, you think, OK, this run will score, it will be 6-3 with one or two outs. Still no major issues. 

Nope.

Next batter Brendan Boesch was hit by a pitch then scored on Ryan Raburn's three run home run.

Now, it's 6-5 White Sox and you're wondering if Robin has fallen asleep or in the bullpen sports bar.

Next batter Jhonny Peralta drew a walk and finally that was it for Jake. 

Will Ohman was called on and was nothing short of a disaster. The first batter he faced in Delmon Young was beaned on a 2-2 count putting runners on 1st and 2nd for Austin Jackson. On an 0-2 pitch Jackson sent Ohman's fastball to dead center field over the fence for a three run home run to put the Tigers up 8-6.

Unreal.

The Tigers tacked on two more in the 7th. Those two proved to be beneficial because the Sox went down with a fight this afternoon With the bases loaded and two outs in the 9th, Alexei Ramirez lined a two run double to make it a 10-8 ballgame. Unfortunately, Dayan Viciedo couldn't keep the line going and flew out deep to right field to end the game

Generally, everything in baseball evens out. The Sox last night won a game they should've lost. And today they lose a game they should've won. Still, this was a game that would've been nice to have seeing it was against the Tigers with large lead late in the game. Good teams hold on to these games and steal games every now and then.

The Sox (17-20) now head to Anaheim for 48 hours for a quick two game series against the Angels. The Sox then return home for the crosstown series at Wrigley Field.

I think I need to go to more games

Last night's 5-0 shut out of the Kansas City Royals puts the Sox at 16-17 on the season hanging 2 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Indians. The rare win at home brings their home record to 6-9. I've been to five of those six wins.

Adam Dunn hit his 11th home run of the season in the 1st inning which matches his total home run output from 2011. The blast was all Gavin Floyd needed as he pitched a gem going 7 2/3 innings only surrendering five hits. He left with a bases loaded jam in the 8th after striking out Billy Butler but Matt Thornton came on to strike out Eric Hosmer to end the treat.

That's two stress free wins in a row for the Sox!

The news of the day came before the game as the never ending Chris Sale saga seems to have come to a conclusion. Sale's MRI came back "clean and pristine" according to Kenny Williams and...wait for it... will RETURN TO THE ROTATION for Saturday's game.

A testy Don Cooper was interviewed on The Mully and Hanley show on The Score Thursday morning before the MRI was done. Coop didn't seem to think the Sale conversation was that important and gets a little frustrated as the questions keep coming. There's even a Arnie Munoz reference!  Click here for the interview   Cooper's best line about the closer's role was, "Sit and watch. And stay tuned. We've got options." Dear God. 

So Sale isn't the closer?

With a 3-0 lead heading into the 8th inning John Danks surrendered back to back singles to Casey Kotchman & Jack Hannahan. With runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, Robin Ventura thought Danks' night was done and decided to hand the game away to the clown car known as the Sox bullpen.

Danks threw his best game of the season tonight going 7+ innings, giving up five hits and two runs which were scored after he left the game.

Chris Sale was called on to pitch the 8th. The same Chris Sale that was recently moved to the CLOSER'S ROLE by White Sox management. So unless Robin was going to use Sale for a two inning save (which is unlikely seeing he came in with nobody out and apparently a sore elbow) the Sox have just contradicted themselves again.

Sale induced a ground ball of the bat of Johnny Damon but the play was botched by Alexei Ramirez setting up a bases loaded, nobody out situation. The Indians  took advantage of the error and scored three times to tie the game in the frame eventually moving the game into extra innings.

Thankfully, the Sox only needed the 10th score two more runs. Alex Rios exacted revenge on Indians closer Chris Perez by tripling to score Brent Lillibridge (Who was pinch running for Paul Konerko.) Last Thursday, Perez appeared to yell at Rios in celebration as he grounded out to end the game. While walking off the field, Rios had words for Perez taking exception for celebrating the win.

Alexei Ramirez got Rios home on fielder's choice and Addison Reed threw a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th to secure the 5-3 White Sox win.

It was nice to Danks finally earn his pay. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come because the Sox rotation seems to be down to three capable starters in Danks, Floyd and Peavy.

This team is getting brutal to watch

As I write this the Sox have just given up a 1-0 lead to the Cleveland Indians after having two outs and nobody on in the Cleveland fifth. Just called up starter Eric Stults walked the ninth place hitter, Lou Marson (who only has had one hit this season.) then proceeded to let him waltz into second base before giving up an RBI single to Michael Brantley which tied the game. Brantley advanced to second when Alex Rios air mailed the throw home which helped him score on the RBI single by Jason Kipnis.

The Sox could use this win tonight as they have lost 8 of their last 11 games including this afternoon's make up 8-6 loss. Phil Humber could use some of those scoreless frames he threw up in Seattle a few weeks ago as he has been absolutely dreadful in his last three outings. Today, he gave up eight runs in just 2 1/3 innings of work.

To make matters worse, a head scratcher was announced over the weekend by our fearless leaders on the White Sox coaching staff and front office. Chris Sale has been moved to the closers role after experiencing soreness in his left elbow. This is funny because Sale has been groomed to being a starter since joining the club in 2010. In spring training this year the announcement was made that Sale would indeed join the rotation. Now, because of Hector Santiago's ineptness and Sale's "soreness", he will be the closer for the remainder of the 2012 season. Why not just DL him?

The baffling news just adds to the frustration that is the Chicago White Sox these last two weeks. They have dropped their last four series and have fallen back in the AL Central standings.

Walks doom Sox

Phil Humber worked in and out of trouble in his six innings of work and White Sox pitching walked eight Indian hitters to help them score six runs in tonight's 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians. 

The Sox were riding high a Adam Dunn fourth inning solo home run when the 1-0 lead was quickly erased the following inning on Carlos Santana's two out, three run home run way back into the empty concourse in right field.

Unlike recent games, the Sox showed some brief signs of fight. In the home half of the fifth, Alexei Ramirez (hitting in the two hole tonight) tied the game on a two run single. 

Alas, the usually steady bullpen couldn't keep the Indians down. The Tribe broke through in the eighth inning on a Jack Hannahan single to give the Indians a 4-3 lead. They slammed the door in the ninth on Travis Hafner's two run home run off Matt Thornton.

For now, first place in the AL Central belongs to the Cleveland Indians who have a record of 12-10. The Sox fall to 12-12 and sit with the Detroit Tigers in second place who have the same record. What a bunch of mediocrity. It's a shame that Sox are dropping all these early games when they have chances to build a lead in the division while the Tigers are trying to figure things out.

John Danks and  Justin Masterson will pitch for their respective clubs in tomorrow night's finale. A win would be nice seeing that the Sox will face the Tigers over the weekend in Detroit then see the Indians again next week for four games.