Crosstown Classic A Sweeping Success For North Siders

On the field, the Cubs are the best in the bigs, so it should be no surprise that they are the best in the city.

Off the field, it was the Chicago White Sox acting like the ignored step-child, doing all the talking.

Manager Ozzie Guillen ranted about rats as big as pigs lifting weights in the right field batting cages. General Manger Kenny Williams wished the Cubs a "Happy Anniversary" and catcher A.J. Pierzynski called Cubs fans "idiots." Oh, and John Danks called Wrigley Field a [bleep] hole.

In the end, the Cubs let their bats do the talking as they belted nine home runs in the weekend sweep of the Sox.

Aramis Ramirez singlehandedly put the White Sox on their back with four home runs, including a pair of home runs (one of which was a walk-off winner off Scott Linebrink) in Friday's 4-3 come-from-behind win.

Former nemesis Jim Edmonds (who will be getting a blog entry in the coming days dedicated to him) hit two home runs in the nine run fourth inning of the Cubs 11-7 win on Saturday. And even though Ozzie didn't want to give Edmonds credit for the work he did against the Sox, you can't ignore Edmonds and his .311/.358/.511 slash stats he has posted since joining the Cubs.

In the sweep-clinching 7-1 victory, Ryan Dempster moved to 9-0 at Wrigley Field (and 9-2 overall) by limiting the Sox to one run on 10 hits in eight innings of work. On the other side, the strike-zone-challenged Javier Vazquez walked the first two batters on eight pitches and gave up homers to Ramirez and Eric "Don't Call Me Corey" Patterson, who already has a more successful Cub career than his brother.

The weekend series puts the Cubs at 48-28 overall (still the best record in the bigs) and 32-8 at the Friendly Confines. The loss drops the Sox to 41-31 who saw their lead in the AL Central shrink to 1.5 games over the suddenly streaking Minnesota Twins.

I can't WAIT 'til next weekend!