Dempster big part of Cubs' overwhelming home success

There was a whole bunch of things Cubs manager Lou Piniella was liking about his team as it was on its way to a sweep of the White Sox on Sunday night.

Most of those things had to do with the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, which continued to be quite friendly during a convincing 7-1 rout of the South Siders, giving the Cubs a monumental sweep of this three-game series between first-place clubs.

The victory was the Cubs' 14th in a row at home and improved their overall record to 48-28, best in baseball.

"We're playing with confidence at home because we've won at home with regularity," Piniella said before the game. "Look, I said it last year. This is a very fun place to play. The fans are into it. It's full every night. It's just a good atmosphere.

"Our guys don't get down when we get down in the score. And we've been able to have quite a few come-from-behind wins here at home."

The Cubs didn't need to come from behind Sunday, thanks to the power of Eric Patterson and Aramis Ramirez and in large part to the pitching of Ryan Dempster.

Patterson hit his first big-league homer in the fifth, a 2-run shot off Javier Vazquez. Ramirez hit his 14th of the season two batters later.

But the show once again was Dempster, who worked into the ninth inning to improve to 9-2 and lower his ERA to 2.63.

Hits by Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher to start the ninth convinced Piniella to remove Dempster after he had thrown 103 pitches.

"Obviously, I would have loved to finish it, but I've got to get the leadoff out and get the next guy out, too," Dempster said.

Dempster tossed the Cubs' only complete game of the season, on June 11, and Piniella says he will give Dempster an extra day's rest and have him pitch against the Sox on Saturday instead of Friday on the South Side.

"You know what?" Piniella said. "It goes to show you, to me, complete games aren't that important. I would rather take out a pitcher an inning sooner than I have to than see these guys labor. Starting pitching is so valuable."

Dempster put runners on in each of the first three innings, but got help from double plays in the first and second. After a 1-2-3 fourth, with good defense from third baseman Ramirez and first baseman Derrek Lee, Dempster got another double-play grounder in the fifth.

"I don't think my fastball command has ever been as good as it is right now," he said. "It just comes with work and keeping a consistent delivery. Just try to throw as many strikes as I can. Like you see, we've got a pretty good defense -- a very good defense."

The crowd of 41,034 was on its feet in the eighth, as Dempster struck out Carlos Quentin, leaving a runner stranded. Dempster then got a big hand as he batted in the bottom of the eighth.

"It was crazy out there today," he said. "Eighth inning, bottom of the eighth, when I went to hit, I got a standing ovation like that and coming off the field. It's really special.

"When you dream of coming to Wrigley Field and playing here and being a Cub, that's the kind of feeling you dream of. It's amazing, and we just want to keep it going."