Cubs Spanked By Brewers
As they draw closer to a second-straight NL Central title, the Cubs seemed to be on a roll, winning five in a row. Until last night, that is. The Brewers knocked around Jason Marquis en route to a 6-2 victory of the Cubs. Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder continued his monster series with a 3-for-4 performance, including a first inning, bases loaded double. Ramirez and Theriot both knocked in a run, but it was not nearly enough as the rest of the Cubs bats were quiet. Marquis gave up all six runs in five and a third innings. Meanwhile, after Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets left the game before the third inning, the Cubs faced seven more pitchers and couldn't figure any of them out. From the Tao of Lou: "They threw a lot of different pitching at us and got the job done. You can do that in September. In the summer, it's hard to do." The Cubs' magic number remains at four, though a win tonight to close out the series will cut that to two.
White Sox Drop Another To Yankees
Just like their north-side counterparts, the White Sox saw their bats go silent at the wrong time as they squandered a good start by rookie Clayton Richard and dropped their second game out of three to the Yankees, 5-1. Richard struck out five and threw six shutout innings before giving up two runs in the seventh. Scott Linebrink gave up three more runs in the eighth, including homers to Johnny Damon and A-Rod, as the Yanks closed the door. In spite of the loss, the Sox remain 2.5 games up on the Twins, who lost to the Indians again. After the game, Ozzie was unimpressed with the offense: "Offensively, we didn't have much going. To win, we are going to have score more than one run." The Sox magic number remains at nine, but by now, all eyes are turning towards next week's big three-game series in Minneapolis which, for all intents and purposes, should decide the AL Central.
