Konerko's HR sends White Sox to 11th straight win

Posted June 25, 2010 11:00 pm

By Lindsey Wilhite

Fastballs hardly ever make Paul Konerko look silly.

"You can throw 105 and he's ready for the fastball," said White Sox starter Freddy Garcia. "All the time."

But with the score tied in the eighth inning Saturday night, Cubs rookie reliever Andrew Cashner had the Sox cleanup man swinging way late on 99-mph heat.

So late, in fact, the ball might already have been in Geovany Soto's glove.

"I didn't get off right on that pitch as far as how I got ready," said Konerko, whose timing had been disrupted by two initial sliders.

"After I got it thrown by me, I kind of threw all the chips in the middle and said, 'You know, he'll probably come with it again. If he throws something else, go back to the dugout.' "

Cashner again brought the heat, and Konerko indeed went back to the dugout - but only after enjoying a leisurely jog around the bases while 39,479 fans either screamed or groaned.

Konerko timed a 100-mph offering and lined it into the left-center bleachers to give the White Sox a 3-2 victory before a sellout crowd at U.S. Cellular Field.

Konerko's second game-winning, eighth-inning homer in three days pushed the Sox' winning streak to 11 games - the franchise's longest since June 1961.

After Matt Thornton induced a game-ending double play from Alfonso Soriano to push the Sox' record to 4-1 against the Cubs with Sunday's game remaining, the Sox went to the dugout briefly before ambling back to home plate to claim the inaugural Crosstown Cup presented by BP.

Per his right as team captain, Konerko sent 43-year-old infielder Omar Vizquel forward to grab the two-piece trophy.

"He's the oldest guy on the team that hasn't won the Cup," Konerko deadpanned.

While humor continued to be the primary currency in the Sox' clubhouse - one player joked that he'd take the Cup and put it on his car as a hood ornament - the Cubs remained grim in search of wins.

Despite another quality start from Carlos Silva, who allowed 2 runs in 6 innings, the Cubs (32-42) dropped 10 games below .500 for the first time in Lou Piniella's tenure.

The Cubs held a pregame meeting to clear the air about suspended pitcher Carlos Zambrano and all other issues but never found a way to get ahead against Garcia and the Sox.

With the Sox leading 2-1 going into the seventh, Aramis Ramirez led off with a home run to center off Garcia.

After Ramirez's first blast in three weeks, Alfonso Soriano hustled his way into a double. Starlin Castro bunted him to third, but Geovany Soto took strike three and Ryan Theriot grounded out to end the threat.

The Cubs went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position for the night.

"We played with some intensity tonight," Piniella said. "We played the game well. We just didn't get the big hit again when we needed it."

That's nothing new for a White Sox opponent. Since June 9, when the Sox began their 15-1 run, their opponents are batting just .235 (19-for-81) with 3 doubles, no triples and no homers with runners in scoring position.

Konerko, on the other hand, is in scoring position these days whenever he reaches the batter's box.

His homer off Cashner in his first look at the rookie gave him 19 this season - 1 behind major-league leaders Miguel Cabrera and Jose Bautista.

"I watched a little video (of him) before the game, but it's not a big mystery," Konerko said. "He's got a nice slider, but he throws real hard. If you're up there looking for anything besides a fastball, it's probably not the best game plan."

"I left the ball up and he put a good swing on it," Cashner said. "That's what I wanted to throw him right there."

He'll learn.

Lindsey Willhite's game tracker

White Sox 3, Cubs 2

Win streak peak: The White Sox are riding an 11-game winning streak for the first time since June 27, 1961, when the franchise swept a doubleheader against Detroit to run a win streak to 12 games.

Zero after zero: The White Sox went 28 innings without allowing a run until Derrek's Lee game-tying RBI single with one out in the sixth.

Power outage: Until Aramis Ramirez homered to lead off the seventh, the Cubs hadn't delivered an extra-base hit since Geovany Soto and Alfonso Soriano opened the seventh inning on Wednesday at Seattle with back-to-back doubles - a 30-inning powerless streak.

The 20,000 Pyramid: With Saturday's loss, the Cubs became the first major-league franchise to play 20,000 games. According to Baseball-Reference.com, they're 10,197-9,643 all-time in regular-season play.