All streaks end sooner or later. The White Sox,who were going on all cylinders, had their 11 game winning streak snapped by the last team that had defeated them two weeks ago, the Cubs 8-6. Ryan Dempster had a rough first inning,but then pretty much settled down,out pitched John Danks,and got some offensive backing. Tyler Colvin,batting in the lead off spot,homered,had two singles and drove in four runs.The Northsiders also survived one of those ‘Carlos Marmol moments’ in the ninth inning of what should have otherwise been an easy win.The White Sox started off against Dempster hitting lazer beams,but all for singles early.With one out in the bottom of the first, Omar Vizquel singled and took third on Alex Rios’s line base hit to CF. Rios,stole second as Paul Konerko fanned, then Carlos Quentin drove in a pair with a line single up the middle. Mark Kotsay had the fourth Sox hit of the inning,but he and Quentin were stranded as A.J.Pierzynski fanned and slammed hit bat in anger,breaking it in two pieces. Alexi Ramirez beat out a grounder to Aramis Ramirez at 3B but as he tried to steal second base while Gordon Beckham fanned, Plate Umpire Gary Darling called Beckham for interfering with Geovany Soto, so Alexi was automatically called out for an unusual double play. The Cubs took their first lead of the weekend in the top of the third when Soto singled,and one out later Starlin Castro did the same. Colvin then lifted a three run homer,his 10th of the season to make it 3-2. The Cubs got a one out double from Aramis in the 4th and Alfonso Soriano walked,but Soto lined hard to Rios, and Baker fanned. The Cubs extended their lead in the top of the 5th when with one away,Colvin and Marlon Byrd singled and were wild pitched to second and third by Danks(7-6). Derrek Lee than smacked a two run double past Vizquel into the LF corner to make it 5-2 and Danks was chased in the Cub 6th after throwing 95 pitches when he walked Soriano and and Tony Pena relieved. Soto greeted him with a double down the LF line as Soriano scored to make it 6-2. As Dempster’s pitch count reached 91,Konerko greeted him with a lead off homer in the bottom of the 6th, his 20th. Soriano got into the long ball act in the top of the 8th when he lifted a high fly ball that the jet stream got a hold of and blew over the LF wall into the Sox bullpen,then after Randy Williams relieved Pena,Castro doubled to left center with two gone and scored on a single by Colvin to RF to make it 8-3. Sean Marshall started the bottom of the 8th in relief of Dempster. Marmol worked an ineffective 9th for the Cubs in a non save situation and almost blew it. After fanning Quentin, he was true to form, walking Kotsay and Pierzynski before getting Alexi on a fly ball. But Beckham doubled down the RF line to drive in a pair and he scored on a single by Juan Pierre. Next Marmol walked pinch hitter Andruw Jones to bring the potential winning run to the plate in Rios,who fanned for the final out. Streak over!
NOTES—Attendance was 39,682, the Sox fourth sellout of the season, and of course third straight this weekend….This is Konerko’s 11th season with at least 20 homers,tying the Club record also held by Frank Thomas….Former Sox,and Bulls broadcaster Lorne Brown passed away Thursday in Las Cruces,New Mexico at the age of 71.Brown,a Navy Vet,will be buried at sea….After relative peace at Wrigley two weeks ago, lost of fights broke out here for the second day in a row in the 8th inning….For the second straight year,the Sox took four of six from the Cubs and have a four game lifetime series, but the Cubs of 2007 still are the only team to have ever won as many as five of the six games played between Chicago’s two teams….The Cubs host their season long nemesis,the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field starting Monday night with Randy Wells(3-6)facing Paul Hamolm(4-6)while the Sox head to Kansas City to open a series with the Royals. Mark Buehrle(6-6)faces Anthony Larew(0-1).
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