Paul Konerko figured this was right about where the White Sox would be. He never envisioned what it would take to get there, though.Konerko hit his 19th home run to snap an eighth-inning tie and the White Sox won their 11th straight game, beating the struggling Cubs 3-2 on Saturday.The White Sox are on their longest win streak since a 12-game run in June 1961, and they can thank Konerko for keeping it going. He broke a 2-all tie with one out in the eighth when he connected off reliever Andrew Cashner (0-1), sending the White Sox to their 15th victory in 16 games.Konerko turned on a 1-2 pitch and the ball reached the left-center seats in a hurry. Fans broke into a “Paulie! Paulie!” chant as he circled the bases, drawing a curtain call from the slugger.The home run made a winner of J.J. Putz (4-2), who pitched a scoreless eighth after Freddy Garcia went seven innings.Matt Thornton worked the ninth for his third save with closer Bobby Jenks tending to an ailing family member, getting Alfonso Soriano to hit into a game-ending double play after Aramis Ramirez walked.The White Sox (39-34) moved five games above .500 for the first time since last July 23 and into a tie for second in the AL Central with Detroit, 1½ games behind Minnesota.But on June 8, when the White Sox were 24-33 and 9½ games out of first after losing to Detroit? The White Sox turnaround has given some hope to the struggling Cubs, but their misery continues.At least there were no tantrums like the one a screaming Carlos Zambrano delivered in Friday’s 6-0 loss, when he had to be separated from teammate Derrek Lee in the dugout and got sent home following a four-run first. The Cubs suspended Zambrano indefinitely, and manager Lou Piniella said Saturday he won’t have a spot in the rotation when he returns.The Cubs got another good start from Carlos Silva and a leadoff homer from the struggling Aramis Ramirez in the top of the seventh that tied it at 2, but lost for the sixth time in eight games.The White Sox got a run-scoring single from Alex Rios in the third, and quickly regained the lead after Lee singled home a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Alexei Ramirez in the bottom half.Aramis Ramirez, in his second game back after missing 15 with a sprained thumb, tied it when he drove a 2-1 pitch from Garcia just over the center-field wall leading off the seventh for his sixth homer, but the Cubs fell to 11-17 in one-run games.Garcia went seven innings, allowing two runs and eight hits, but did not figure in the decision after winning five straight starts. Silva basically matched Garcia, holding the White Sox to two runs and three hits over six innings in another strong start, although he did hit three batters with pitches. Still, the Cubs lost by one again.

NOTES—Guillen expects to have Jenks back on Sunday….The Cubs selected RHP Brian Schlitter from Triple-A Iowa and optioned right-hander Jeff Stevens to the minor league club before the game….The win gives the White Sox the BP Crosstown Cup for taking the season series from the Cubs, but don’t expect them to parade it around town the way the Blackhawks did with the Stanley Cup. “I already tried to give it away,” Konerko said. “It’s kind of cool.” …..If the ‘Hawks hadn’t won the Cup and the thing hadn’t happened with BP — there’s two things working against it.”

ROSEMONT—It wasn’t pretty, but the Rush fought hard and earned its ninth win of the season with a 55-42 win over the Orlando Predators Saturday night at Allstate Arena.The Rush (9-3) won the battle of the defenses, forcing four turnovers and holding Orlando (5-6) to the lowest total given up by the Rush on the year.With the game tied 7-7 early in the first quarter, Rush defensive lineman Joe Peters showed that the focus of the game would be the defenses when he collected his team-leading sixth sack of the year, forcing Predators QB Nick Hill to fumble in the process. The loose ball bounced out of the Predators’ end zone for a safety, giving the Rush a two-point lead and the ball.The Rush took advantage, taking the free kick and scoring when Michna connected with fullback Robert Boss on a 22-yard screen pass that put the Rush up two scores at 16-7.After the teams traded interceptions, Hill tossed an 11-yard TD strike to Robert Quiroga to get the Predators within 16-14.The Rush bounced right back, however, as Boss completed the hat trick, rumbling in from the 6-yard line for his third touchdown of the night, making the score 23-14.After consecutive Orlando touchdowns gave the Preds a 28-23 lead with 43 seconds left in the first half, the Rush got the ball back and marched 29 yards to get in position for a 31-yard field goal as time expired. The kick sent the teams into the half with the score 28-26.The Rush got the ball to start the second half and quickly regained the lead as Michna connected with Travis LaTendresse on an eight yard score that put the Rush on top 33-28.After a Predator score made it 35-33, Chris Gould connected on his second field goal try of the night putting the Rush back on top 36-35.A botched snap on the next Predators possession proved to be the game’s final turning point. The fumbled snap was recovered by Rush linebacker Clifton Smith at the Orlando 3-yard line. On the very next play Michna dove into the end zone to give the Rush a 43-35 lead going into the fourth quarter.The teams again traded touchdowns before a Chris Martin interception and another Gould field goal extended the Rush lead to 53-42.A second Orlando safety with25 seconds remaining put the cap on the win.

NOTES—Michna finished the game 22 of 35 for 231 yards, four TDs and one interception. His interception was his first since May 15 and broke a string of 131 consecutive attempts without a pick … Gould connected on all six PAT attempts, extending his streak of consecutive PATs to 34, breaking Dan Frantz team record of 32 … Gould also had a career three made field goal and finished with a season high 15 points … Boss finished with 60 receiving yards, nine rushing yards and three touchdowns…..The Rush play at Tampa Bay Friday night with a 6:20pm pre game show on www.arenarush.com

 

LES

How much hotter can the White Sox get? And also how much more fortunate can they continue to be? The White Sox edged the Atlanta Braves 2-0 to complete their third straight sweep of a three game series(for the first time since 1952)while thye Minnesota Twins have remained ice cold,getting swept by the Brewers at Miller Park. The Sox are now just 2 1/2 games in back of Minnesota after trailing by 9 1/2 games on June 9.Of course Detroit is still between the Sox and Twins in the standings. A great pitchers duel between Gavin Floyd and Derek Lowe was scoreless for the seven innings both were in there and both got “no decisions” The bullpens took over in the 8th. J.J.Putz retired the Braves in order in the top of the 8th and Takashi Saito entered for the bottom of the eighth. Juan Pierre,who four years ago was struggling as a Cub, led off with a single just to the right of Atlanta 1B Eric Hinske. He was bunted to second by Alexi Ramirez and held on when Mark Kotsay flew out to Melky Cabrera down the LF line. Red hit Paul Konerko then sat on a fast ball and drilled it over 400 feet to left center as Grego Blanco never moved and the only runs were produced. Bobby Jenks had another 1-2-3 ninth for his 17 save.

NOTES—Attendance on a perfect day was 31,076…..The struggling Cubs are here over the weekend starting with Friday’s 3:05pm start. Jake Peavy(6-5)faces Carlos Zambrano(3-5)in the opener.

LES

SEATTLE—Marlon Byrd caught himself mid-sentence. He wasn’t about to portray any doubt.”I’m hoping we’re going to put together a run. Actually, I’m not hoping. I know we’re going to put together a run before the All-Star break,” the Cubs center fielder said after driving in the tiebreaking run in the 13th inning of a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.It’s a refrain Cubs’ fans have heard for much of the subpar season. They can only hope Thursday’s victory and a weekend series against the rival White Sox can be the starting point for the run Byrd said he knows is coming.On an afternoon where both teams struggled to come up with a clutch hit, Byrd finally came through with a single off Seattle reliever Sean White to help avoid a sweep. Alfonso Soriano walked to lead off the 13th against Garrett Olson (0-2) and didn’t hesitate at third, scoring ahead of Ichiro Suzuki’s throw.While the Cubs were able to salvage a game against the equally underperforming Mariners, it’s the next 10 games that hold major importance. After facing the White Sox, the Cubs have seven straight at home.John Grabow (1-3) pitched two innings of relief for the win. He gave up just one hit in his first victory since May 24, 2009, for Pittsburgh, and the Cub bullpen tossed seven innings of relief, giving up just one run and six hits.Tom Gorzelanny got the final out of the 13th inning for his first career save.The Cubs victory snapped Seattle’s six-game winning streak and spoiled another stellar performance by young right-hander Felix Hernandez. But Seattle failed to capitalize on multiple opportunities to hand Hernandez his sixth win of the season.The Mariners left 13 runners on base and were 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position.Mike Fontenot drove in the Cubs first run with a sacrifice fly in the third and Chad Tracy gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead in the seventh with an RBI single.Jack Wilson hit an RBI double in the bottom half off reliever Andrew Cashner to tie it 2-all.It was the continuation of a strong month by Hernandez. Recovering from a 2-4 start to the season, Hernandez has now thrown at least eight innings on five of his last six outings. He tossed a complete game last Saturday against Cincinnati, giving up just one run and five hits.He nearly matched that on Thursday. Hernandez scattered five hits, struck out eight and allowed just the two runs.Closer David Aardsma came on for the 10th inning and immediately walked Tracy on four pitches. Pinch-runner Starlin Castro reached third with two outs, and Aardsma got Theriot to fly out to end the threat. Seattle missed on another great chance in the bottom half. Chone Figgins led off with a four-pitch walk from Cubs closer Carlos Marmol, who got Suzuki for the final out of the ninth. Marmol walked Mike Sweeney, but recovered to get Jose Lopez swinging at strike three in the dirt for the first out. Figgins was then at the front end of a double steal and was called safe by third base umpire Mike Reilly on a close play. That brought Lou Piniella out of the Cubs dugout. Piniella barked at Reilly, taking off his hat and seeming on the verge of getting ejected before returning to the dugout.After Franklin Gutierrez was intentionally walked, Marmol struck out Josh Wilson and Eliezer Alfonzo, both on wicked sliders, to end the threat.Cubs starter Ted Lilly threw six strong innings, but his day was cut short by a high pitch count. Lilly surrendered just one run, five hits and struck out six.

NOTES—The Cubs are expected to activate Aramis Ramirez from the DL on Friday. Ramirez has been out with a left thumb injury…..Thursday’s matinee crowd of 41,329 was the third largest of the season for Seattle.

Sure, the White Sox had a six-game winning streak — against Pittsburgh and Washington. How would they do against the NL’s best? As it turned out, just fine.They roughed up one of baseball’s top young pitchers, Tommy Hanson, and rolled to a 9-6 victory Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves, who came in with a five-game winning streak and a 34-14 mark during the previous seven weeks.On June 8, the White Sox were 24-33 and 9½ games behind Minnesota in the AL Central. Now they are 35-34 and 4½ games back.The Sox had 13 of their season-high 16 hits during Hanson’s 3 2/3 innings. The first 10 were singles before Carlos Quentin’s three-run homer put the White Sox up 9-3 in the fourth. It was their first home run in nine games since Alex Rios went deep June 12.The White Sox are 11-2 against NL teams this season and 139-103 since interleague play began in 1997.Danks (7-5) spotted Atlanta a 3-0 lead before retiring 15 of the last 18 batters he faced to post his third consecutive victory.Hanson (7-4), meanwhile, surrendered a career-high nine runs as his four-game winning streak ended. He had been 4-0 with a 0.75 ERA against AL teams and had a string of 23 consecutive scoreless innings in interleague play before A.J. Pierzynski’s two-run single in the second.Hanson’s ERA rose from 3.38 to 4.17 and he didn’t record a strikeout for the first time in his two-year career. Not including Tuesday’s game and an eight-run blowup May 20 against Cincinnati, Hanson has a 2.56 ERA in 13 starts.Sox starters have a 2.16 ERA during the 11-1 surge. Danks seemed ready to break that string, giving up Martin Prado’ leadoff homer and Brooks Conrad’s two-run double in the second, but he retired the next 11 batters.The White Sox sent 10 men to the plate and scored five times in their half of the second on two-run singles by Pierzynski and Omar Vizquel and Rios’ RBI infield hit. Hanson threw 36 pitches in the inning.Alexei Ramirez’s third-inning single made it 6-3 before the White Sox broke it open in the fourth. Rios and Paul Konerko singled before Quentin’s homer — with Rios’ hit coming after Conrad, playing third base, momentarily lost the ball in his shirt.Konerko, Ramirez and Pierzynski had three singles apiece for the White Sox. Konerko is batting .429 over his last 19 games and Pierzynski .438 over his last nine.Brian McCann homered and Conrad had an RBI double in the ninth for the Braves, who had won 42 straight games when scoring five or more runs. Bobby Jenks got the final out for his 15th save.

NOTES—Nationals pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg already is a household name — except in Ozzie’s household. In downplaying his team’s recent sweep at Washington, Guillen said: “We only scored one run against the first guy, Starborough, or whatever his name is.”…..Jake Peavy has some shoulder pain but says he’ll make his scheduled start Friday against the Cubs.

SEATTLE—Franklin Gutierrez hit a home run to help send Seattle to its season-high fifth consecutive victory, 2-0 against the Cubs.The Mariners have scored 11 runs during their winning streak, their longest since winning six in a row April 9-15, 2009. Five of those runs came in one game.Who needs offense when you have pitching like this? Seattle has allowed two runs in the past five games, tying a team record set in September 2001 — a season in which the Mariners won an AL-record 116 games.Brandon League and David Aardsma finished the six-hitter. Aardsma, a Cub in 2006, walked Geovany Soto and allowed a single to Alfonso Soriano with two outs in the ninth. But the right-hander struck out Tyler Colvin swinging at a 96 mph fastball for his 16th save in 20 chances. Ryan Dempster (5-6) yielded five hits in his 11th career complete game and first since Sept. 29 for the Cubs.His problem was that he allowed a leadoff single to Jose Lopez in the second, then left over the plate a 91 mph fastball that was supposed to be inside. Gutierrez hammered that for his sixth home run of the season, and first since May 25.The Cubs lost for the third time in four games.The Cubs immediately got League in trouble in the eighth with a walk by Starlin Castro and a single by Ryan Theriot. But the ground-ball specialist got Marlon Byrd, who had two hits off Jason Vargas, to chop into a double play. Byrd punched the air in frustration.Pinch-hitter Chad Tracy then popped out, and the shutout stayed intact.Vargas (6-2) had seven strikeouts, one short of his career high, by using a new cut fastball and a faster pace. He’s learned both recently from Lee, who is just ahead of Vargas in ERA and will try to continue Seattle’s roll on Wednesday.The fastest pitch Vargas threw was 88 mph. But his location was exquisite — Jeff Baker watched that fastball for strike three on the inside corner to end the sixth.Soriano squandered an earlier prime chance. He doubled leading off the fifth. Then he rounded third unaware that left fielder Michael Saunders had drifted into left-center field to easily catch Colvin’s line drive. Saunders, who later said Soriano must have either thought he was positioned somewhere else or that there were two outs, walked halfway to second. He could have gone all the way for the unassisted double play but flipped the ball there instead.The owner of six All-Star appearances and a $136 million contract walked off the field looking bewildered. He remained that way in the dugout while talking to teammates.

NOTES—The many Cubs fans at Safeco Field booed Mariners slugger Milton Bradley each time he came to the plate. They loved it when he struck out twice. He also walked and flied out, dropping his average to .211. The Cubs traded Bradley for Carlos Silva only one failed season into his $30 million, three-year contract with the Cubs. … This was the Cubs’ first game in Seattle since 2002, and Piniella’s first in Seattle since 2005 when he was in his final season managing Tampa Bay.

Carlos Zambrano pitched seven strong innings, Derrek Lee drove in a season-high four runs and Geovany Soto homered Sunday to lead the Cubs to a 12-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.It was quite a turnaround for the Cubs, who had dropped six of nine and were coming off a 12-0 loss that left fans peppering them with well deserved boos.The Cubs matched a season-high with 18 hits after collecting two on Saturday, and they took advantage of some defensive lapses, scoring two runs in each of the first two innings and chasing Joe Saunders (5-8) in a four-run third that made it 8-0.Zambrano (3-5) had one of his better outings this season.He allowed one run and eight hits while striking out seven and walking one in his fourth start since his return from the bullpen. He also delivered two hits, including an RBI single in the third, as the Cubs avoided the weekend sweep.Lee had a sacrifice fly in the second, a two-run, bases-loaded double in the third and added an RBI single in the fifth, sending the Angels to their third road loss in 15 games.Soto hit the first pitch of the third into the left-field bleachers for his eighth homer and Zambrano made it 6-0 when he drove in Starlin Castro with a one-out single.The Cubs added to their lead after another misplay by shortstop Brandon Wood, who mishandled Jeff Baker’s hopper with two out. That loaded the bases for Lee, who capped the burst by lining a double to make it 8-0 and chase Saunders.The left-hander simply got battered, allowing nine hits while throwing 84 pitches in 2 2-3 innings in a rare poor performance away from home.He came in with a 4-1 road record this season, but it was clear from the start that this was not his day. Poor fielding simply compounded the problems.In the first, Alfonso Soriano beat out a slow roller with the bases loaded that second baseman Howie Kendrick barehanded before throwing wildly to first as two runs scored.In the second, Wood pitched in.He dropped the ball after fielding Ryan Theriot’s leadoff single behind second and made a questionable decision on Marlon Byrd’s one-out grounder. Rather than get the easy out at first, Wood double-clutched as he went to third and Theriot beat the throw.Baker then doubled to right, and Lee followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

NOTES—Lou Piniella said he “would think” 3B Aramis Ramirez will be ready to come off the disabled list when he’s eligible on Wednesday. Ramirez, out with an ailing left thumb, is rehabbing with Class A Peoria. … Cubs radio announcer Ron Santo will miss the three-game trip to Seattle that starts Tuesday and plans to cut back his travel schedule to the “Midwest only” next season. A diabetic, Santo fell ill during the previous trip, going to the hospital in Pittsburgh and coming home from Milwaukee after feeling sick again. … Angels manager Mike Scioscia said SS Erick Aybar (hyperextended left knee) had “a good workout” on Saturday, taking ground balls and running in the outfield, and will be reevaluated on Monday.