GrobberNET

  PITTSBURGH—John Danks held down Alvarez and the Pirates by limiting them to four hits over eight innings and Pittsburgh committed six errors during the White Sox 7-2 victory Wednesday.The Pirates ran their losing streak to 10 in the major league debut of Alvarez, their top power prospect since Barry Bonds. Pedro Alvarez contributed one of the Pirates’ four ninth-inning errors, mishandling a throw at third base.It was only the 15th game in club history with as many as six errors. The... (more...)

  PITTSBURGH—The White Sox are finding a way to focus the attention away from constantly feuding manager Ozzie Guillen and general manager Kenny Williams. Namely, win some games.Gordon Beckham drove in three runs and the White Sox spoiled former first-round draft pick Brad Lincoln’s first start at home, beating Pittsburgh 6-4 Tuesday and extending the last-place Pirates’ losing streak to nine games.Ramon Castro doubled in a run while reaching base four consecutive times and the... (more...)

　 After playing one of their better games in beating the White Sox 1-0 Sunday, the Cubs turned in a complete stinker Tuesday in a game that would have been better had it been rained out.Rajai Davis and Kevin Kouzmanoff had three hits apiece, and the Oakland Athletics took advantage of four errors in a 9-5 victory over the Cubs on a rainy Tuesday night.Davis drove in two runs. Kouzmanoff extended his career-high hitting streak to 15. And the Athletics rebounded from a three-game sweep at San Francisco,... (more...)

             On a night that saw the Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks(and the Cup itself)displayed in front of the packed house at Wrigley, both Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd put on pitching displays.The Cubs prevented a sweep by the Sox with a 1-0 win on Chad Tracy’s RBI single which scored Alfonso Soriano in the bottom of the 7th. Lilly(2-5) tossed hit less ball through seven innings,hitting two and walking one(Floyd). In the interim, Floyd(2-7)kept the Cubs hit less through 6.2... (more...)

  Leave it to the Cubs to wake up the White Sox. The Southsiders,who have been equally as inept all season, won their fourth straight 2-1 as the Cubs got blanked by Mark Buehrle,whom the rest of baseball has hit pretty hard since his perfect game last summer. Carlos Silva(8-1),who came into this game 8-0, but who was 4-10 lifetime against the White Sox,pitched well,but got no run support. In the top of the first,the Sox grabbed the lead again on one out singles by Alexi Ramirez,Alex Rios and Paul... (more...)

Both the Cubs and White Sox came into this first Cross Town meeting of the season with similar records(bad)and with the Blackhawks being honored with a parade at the same time,the fans at sold out Wrigley Field were quite apathetic. The White Sox bats woke up against slumping Randy Wells, while A.J. Pierzybski and Alex Rios each had four hits and homered and Jake Peavy overcame an early long ball as the Sox won their third straight 10-5 over the Cubs. Unhappy Lou Piniella had gone into a 4 minuted... (more...)

  43-year-old Omar Vizquel homered for the first time in nearly a year and also had a suicide-squeeze bunt in support of John Danks, who pitched seven innings of one-hit ball as the White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 3-0 Thursday.The White Sox thought they’d have one of baseball’s best rotations: Jake Peavy, Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, Freddy Garcia and Danks. But their starters went into this week’s series against Detroit with an AL-worst 5.28 ERA.Floyd, Garcia and Danks then combined... (more...)

　 MILWAUKEE—When a player has the speed of Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez, just about anything is possible. Even a walk-off bunt.Gomez raced all the way from first to third on Craig Counsell’s sacrifice, then kept heading home on a wild throw to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 5-4 victory over the Cubs in 10 innings Thursday.The unorthodox win wasn’t anything new to Counsell, who said he has seen it happen before.The Brewers took two out of three games from their NL Central rivals,... (more...)

                         PHILADELPHIA—After 49 years, it’s done! The Blackhawks are Stanley Cup Champions! Patrick Kane tucked the puck under Michael Leighton at 4:06 of overtime and the Hawks flew off their bench and began a couple of hours of celebration. Kane’s game winner was needed after Phlly’s Scott Hartnell tied the game-getting second of the contest with 3:59 left in regulation with a tip in,giving his team momentum heading into extra time.... (more...)

　 MILWAUKEE—Lou Piniella called a few hitters in at different points on Wednesday afternoon to try to help the Cubs break out of its offensive funk. Derrek Lee? There was no need for a pep talk for the veteran slugger.Lee hit his 300th homer,    Marlon Byrd and Geovany Soto each connected twice and the Cubs showed some surprising pop to power past the Milwaukee Brewers 9-4 on Wednesday night.The five homers marked the Cubs biggest outburst this season and were more than the Cubs hit... (more...)