Sports

Sox prove they rule Chicago

Associated Press
Published May 21, 2005

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CHICAGO - The White Sox brought their brand of aggressive baseball 8 miles across town and gave the Cubs a glimpse of why they own the best record in the majors.

Freddy Garcia pitched inside early and outdueled Greg Maddux, Joe Crede and Jermaine Dye homered and the White Sox had four run-scoring hits with two outs to beat the Cubs 5-1 Friday for their 30th win.

Winning at Wrigley Field made it all the more enjoyable.

"It's definitely a lot of fun playing in a series like this. There are a lot of fans and electricity," Crede said. "It's so much better."

On a breezy, 62-degree day before 38,988, the White Sox pecked away at Maddux and pulled out to a 4-0 lead.

"We got some big two-out hits," said White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who played last season with the Giants. "I was there for Maddux's 300th win. It was kind of cool; they said it might never happen again. He's a great pitcher and a Hall of Fame pitcher, and today we got the best of him."

Garcia, who'd given up 11 earned runs and 18 hits in his previous two starts over 121/3 innings, allowed five singles. He lost his shutout bid in his seventh and final inning on an unearned run. Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi dropped Henry Blanco's popup for a two-base error, and Jerry Hairston hit a two-out single to make it 4-1.

But Garcia set the tone in the first inning. After Maddux hit Iguchi with a pitch in the top half, Garcia came in high and tight on Hairston, the Cubs' leadoff hitter, and moments later plunked Derrek Lee.

It prompted a warning from plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth to both benches.

"You've got to pitch inside," Garcia said. "I don't try to hit anybody. I'm not the kind of guy to hit people. I like to throw inside."

Maddux had no problem with the warning.

"I didn't hit my guy on purpose, that's for sure," he said. "Umpires got to ump. I don't think it really affected how either of us pitched the rest of the game, to be honest."

Lee wasn't upset by being hit but was surprised by the early warning.

"I think it's just one of those things where Maddux has such good control, if he hits someone, they think he did it on purpose. So maybe they thought it was retaliation. I wasn't thinking it was," Lee said.

RED SOX 4, BRAVES 3: A healthy Wade Miller gave Boston's battered rotation a big boost.

Miller retired his first eight batters and allowed three hits in 61/3 innings for the host Red Sox, who struggled on their six-game West Coast trip.

Miller made his third start of the season after recovering from a frayed rotator cuff in his right shoulder that kept him on the disabled list for the last three months of the 2004 season with Houston. He signed with Boston as a free agent.

BLUE JAYS 6, NATIONALS 1: The remnants of the Montreal Expos lost in their return to Canada.

Ted Lilly struck out a season-high eight in five innings, and Vernon Wells homered twice to lead Toronto.

After playing in Montreal as the Expos from 1969 though last season, Canada's first major-league team moved to Washington during the offseason and was renamed the Nationals.

Several fans in the crowd of 17,465 wore hats and jerseys with logos of the Expos, whose departure left the Blue Jays as Canada's sole big-league team.

RANGERS 7, ASTROS 3: Kenny Rogers' scoreless streak was snapped at 31 innings, but he held Houston to three runs in eight innings and got a lot of help from Laynce Nix to lead host Texas.

Nix hit a three-run homer, had six RBIs and made a run-saving throw from centerfield to help Rogers, 40, improve to 5-2.

Rogers' streak, the third longest in Rangers history and eight innings shy of Rogers' club record in 1995, ended when Brad Ausmus' one-out single in the second scored Morgan Ensberg. It was the first run allowed by Rogers since April 21 in a 3-2 loss to the Devil Rays.

TWINS 7, BREWERS 1: Carlos Silva pitched a five-hitter for his second career complete game and seven players drove in a run for host Minnesota.

Shannon Stewart and Nick Punto, the Twins' 1-2 hitters, combined for seven hits as Minnesota knocked out Milwaukee starter Gary Glover in a four-run second. Punto went 4-for-4, his first career four-hit game.

CARDINALS 7, ROYALS 6: John Mabry hit a grand slam and a run-scoring double to power visiting St. Louis for its sixth straight victory over the cross-state rival that beat it in the 1985 World Series.

PHILLIES 9, ORIOLES 3: Randy Wolf improved to 4-0 in five games against Baltimore, Chase Utley hit a two-run homer and visiting Philadelphia won for the fourth time in five games.

REDS 2, INDIANS 1: Aaron Harang, the most dependable pitcher in the majors' most hittable rotation, took a shutout into the eighth inning and host Cincinnati's bullpen barely held on.

D'BACKS 6, TIGERS 2: Brandon Webb took a no-hit bid into the seventh and won his sixth straight decision, leading visiting Arizona. Craig Counsell tied a team record with three doubles.

A'S 8, GIANTS 4: Keith Ginter hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning and had a career-high five RBIs in the Oakland Athletics' 8-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, the opener of the Bay Bridge interleague series

ANGELS 9, DODGERS 0: Chone Figgins hit a bases loaded triple in the second and Juan Rivera added a grand slam in the top of the ninth to give Jarrod Washburn all the runs he needed as he pitched seven shutout innings to win his third game.

National League

PIRATES 9, ROCKIES 4: Rob Mackowiak hit a three-run homer to back Mark Redman's strong start for Pittsburgh as Colorado fell to a major league-worst 2-16 on the road.

[Last modified May 21, 2005, 01:38:02]

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