Sox beat rain, then take down the Cubs
There were more than a dozen large pockets of empty seats at the start of Tuesday night's game at U.S. Cellular Field.
Even more people headed home following a rain delay of one hour and 44 minutes in the sixth inning.
This is the Cubs against the White Sox, but Chicago baseball fans aren't fooled easily.
The Cubs are 13 games under .500 and going nowhere, while the White Sox weren't doing a very good job of convincing anyone they are a playoff contender.
But with their 3-2 win over the Cubs, the Sox pulled within 4½ games of first-place Cleveland in the AL Central.
“We have to start putting some wins together,” first baseman Paul Konerko said. “Hopefully that's the first of a lot of them.”
The White Sox pushed across the winning run in the seventh inning on Brent Morel's sacrifice fly off Jeff Samardzija (5-3).
“We're playing good — we're not playing bad baseball,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “We can play better. The way we played early I'm surprised we're only this much behind. It gives the guys hope.”
The bullpen picked up starter Mark Buehrle after the long rain delay in the sixth inning. Jesse Crain (3-2), Matt Thornton and Sergei Santos didn't allow a run, with Santos striking out three of the four hitters he faced for his 13th save.
“His breaking ball was very filthy,” Guillen said. “Every breaking ball, they didn't have a chance.”
A non-sellout crowd of 35,155 did see Konerko stay one of the hottest hitters in either league with a home run leading off the second inning against Cubs starter Matt Garza.
It was the fifth straight game in which Konerko homered, tying a club record, and was his 21st of the season.
“I'm just trying to make good decisions because you can only hit what they give you,” Konerko said.
“P.K. is better because he works at it,” Guillen said. “He takes a lot of pride. He takes every at-bat like it's his last at-bat. I saw a great comment from (new 80-year-old Marlins manager Jack McKeon) in his interview. He said: ‘My birth certificate says 80. I'm not 80.'
“Well, that's the same way with P.K. He just plays better. He plays better because he works, he has more experience, he doesn't panic, and he knows he's good.
“He comes prepared every day to win games.”
While Konerko finds himself in the middle of what could be his greatest season ever at 35, Adam Dunn continued to look lost at the plate, going 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts, dropping his average to .175.
Dunn struck out in his first 2 at-bats and was booed loudly both times.
“If you don't want to be booed by the fans, do something better,” Guillen said. “When you're struggling like that, we're in Chicago, the fans are pretty tough, they demand a lot. Especially when the hype, the expectations, were very high on him.”
The White Sox led 2-1 when a storm hit the South Side in the sixth just as the Cubs were threatening against Buehrle. It disrupted what had been a good pitching duel between Buehrle and Garza.
“I would have liked to see it continue for a couple more innings,” Cubs manager Mike Quade said.
Konerko's home run in the second made it 1-0 with the White Sox scoring again in the third on a double by Alex Rios, a single by Morel and Juan Pierre's nicely executed safety squeeze bunt up the first-base line.
Pierre entered the night hitting .256 with some fans demanding he be replaced in the lineup, but Guillen defended his left fielder and leadoff man before the game.
“Look around, you think Juan is our problem?” Guillen said. “Juan has better numbers than a few people here.”