It was a different kind of Monday for Chicago and its baseball teams.
A week after the Cubs swept the White Sox at Wrigley Field, the ChiSox returned the favor at U.S. Cellular Field.
I won't let the angry Cubs fan inside me or the inquisitive baseball mind analyze this series. Instead I'll let my alter ego, "Stat Boy," break it down.
Take it away...
The Chicago White Sox dominated all facets of this series. And that's putting it nicely.
The Boys from Bridgeport upped their home record to 28-11 while dropping the Wrigleyville Nine's road record to a dismal 19-23.
The Southsiders out-homered the Northsiders 7-3 in the series. The Cubs three homers came off the bats of Geovany Soto, Mike Fontenot and Jim Edmonds in the Game One loss. Unfortunately for the Cubs, no one was on base for the bombs.
In the Sox' Game Three victory, two run homers by Bryan Anderson and Jim Thome, along with Carlos Quentin's solo shot accounted for all of the runs scored by the Men In Black to secure the sweep.
The White Sox bullpen did not allow one measly run in 8.5 innings pitched. The Cub bullpen surrendered 5 runs (and two homers) in 8.2 innings. In fact, the entire Cubs pitching staff was out-pitched. The Sox whiffed 25 batters, while the Cubs pitchers only 'K-ed' 21.
And that's the tale of the tape here from Chicago, as I am out of nicknames for each team.
It's put up or shut up time for the Chicago White Sox.
Last week while their players, general manager, and field manager were shooting verbal insults at the Cubs' fans, their beloved stadium and the fact that they hadn't won the whole damn thing in 100 years.
And all the Cubs did was let their bats do all the talking as they swept away their cross-town rivals.
Now the series shifts to U.S. Cellular Field where the White Sox are 24-11. Conversely, the Cubs are a less than impressive 16-20 on the road.
However, the Cubs should be the LEAST of the Sox' concerns as the Minnesota Twins are 0.5 games out of first place.
That means a Sox loss and a win by the Twinkies takes away a little bit of the shine behind a series that pits a pair of first place teams against one another.
Nevertheless, this should be a fun series to watch. I will especially keep an eye on ESPN's Sunday Night Telecast.
Will Joe Morgan apologize to Cubs fans after creating a crock of crap and belittling the name of the great Ernie Banks?
Will Jon Miller, who is a much better announcer in MLB 2K8 than in real life, not sound like a monotonous piece of crap?
Will Morgan give himself another hard-on while analyzing Carlos Quentin's perfect right-handed swing?
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.
For the first time since the inception of Interleague Play, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox are atop their respective divisions. And that's only one reason the city should be on heightened alert.
Yet, when I think of Cubs-Sox, this picture comes to mind.
The Cubs (45-28) enter the series with the best record in baseball.
Let it sink in. Best. Record. In. Baseball.
The Sox (41-31) enjoy the largest lead of any division leader and come into the series white hot (pun intended) after sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates at U.S. Cellular Field.
To the three Sox fans that read this blog, let it sink in. Largest. Lead. Of. Any. Division. Leader.
Fans of both sides should expect some excellent baseball to be played despite the fact the first round of games will be without the star presence of Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle.
The Cubs will look to take advantage of some home cooking in the three game set. At 29-8, the Friendly Confines is finally living up to its name for the team with white jerseys with blue pinstripes, blue numbers, blue shoes and blue caps. Conversely, the Sox are 17-20 on the road. But really, who isn't below .500 on the road this year?
Game One will feature dueling lefties to start the game. John Danks (4-4) takes the hill for the South Siders and he will be opposed by Ted Lilly (7-5.)
Rebounding right-handers will toe the rubber in Game Two. Jose Contreras (6-5, 3.24) is enjoying a bounce back year, while Jason Marquis (5-3, 4.24) is 2-0 since being railed by manager Lou Piniella after being pulled in a poor outing against the San Diego Padres.
Finally, ESPN gives the Yanks and the Sawks a rest and instead will feature the Battle for Red Line Supremacy's third game. Javier Vazquez (7-5, 4.13) will oppose Ryan Dempster (8-2, 2.76) who is almost unhittable at Wrigley Field (1.11 WHIP in 58.1 IP.)
In closing, I'll leave you some of the match-ups and in the comments section you can tell me who you'd take.
It was a different kind of Monday for Chicago and its baseball teams.
