The performance was so convincing that the crosstown-rival Cubs and White Sox agreed on at least one thing Sunday.
The Cubs, particularly their pitching staff, were simply dominant in leaving U.S. Cellular Field with a three-game sweep that sank the Sox to new lows.
“Just a good all-around weekend for us,” manager Lou Piniella said after Sean Marshall and three Cubs relievers capped the sweep with a 3-0 victory.
The pitching stood out as the Sox managed just two runs in the three-game series, enabling the Cubs to win five games over the Sox in a season for the first time.
Pitching provided the momentum the Cubs (35-39) have heading into the final two weeks before the All-Star break. Cubs pitchers limited the first five hitters in the Sox order to one hit in 18 at-bats Sunday.
“Slowly, we’ve been playing better baseball,” Piniella said.
For the Sox, it was just another humbling loss — their fifth straight and 22nd in their last 27 games. They’re only 11/2 games ahead of last-place Kansas City in the American League Central, which further validates General Manager Ken Williams’ pregame declaration to make some changes, primarily to an increasingly feeble offense.
“The White Sox fans or whoever are going to be mad at me, I don’t care,” Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “The Cubs outplayed us this weekend.”
Soriano led off the first two games with home runs but waited until the seventh inning to connect in Game 3.
Guillen was ejected in the eighth inning after umpiring crew chief Joe West reversed a call that changed a zany double play into an obstruction call on Sox shortstop Juan Uribe that loaded the bases for the Cubs with no outs and led to an insurance run.
That further taxed the patience of the Sox, although organist Nancy Faust found some humor by playing the Mickey Mouse theme after the original call was reversed.
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SERIES RECAP
Cubs lead 2007 series 5-1
Friday:
Cubs 5, Sox 1
Saturday:
Cubs 2, Sox 1
Sunday:
Cubs 3, Sox 0
THEY SAID IT
“There’s going to be interference called on the shortstop, [Juan] Uribe. The runner from first was [Angel] Pagan. He smacked into the shortstop as he tried to round second base. And now the umpires will get together and sort it all out.”
Pat Hughes
[ Cubs radio play-by-play man immediately identified the cause of the controversy. ]“I’ve never seen anything like that in my whole career, as a player coming up in Little League to D-ball to C-ball to A-ball to Triple A to the big leagues. This is absolute B.S. There should be two out and a man on second. And they’ve got the bases loaded and no out. Dadgum right this game’s going to be played under protest.”
Ken “Hawk” Harrelson
[ Sox TV commentator gave his reaction to the controversial call during Sunday’s broadcast ]“I talked to [Uribe], and I said, ‘What are you doing on the bag?’ He said, ‘Man, you were flying.’ After everything happened, I didn’t see [Felix] Pie was so close to me. Thank God [the obstruction] happened.”
Angel Pagan
[ Cubs base runner on Uribe’s obstruction ]The biggest play that didn’t count
Although it didn’t affect the outcome, an eighth-inning play in Sunday’s Cubs-Sox game had participants scratching their heads, including the four-man umpire crew, which met for 10 minutes to get the call right. So here’s what happened:
THE PLAY
The Cubs have runners on first and second with no outs when Mark DeRosa drives a ball toward the right-field corner.
Felix Pie stops at third, and Angel Pagan runs into Sox shortstop Juan Uribe while trying to round second.
The Sox tag out Pagan in a rundown, then Pie in a second rundown. The Cubs are left with DeRosa at second and two outs.
The umpires meet and overrule the entire play, leaving the Cubs with the bases loaded and no one out.
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen argues the call and is subsequently ejected.
THE RULING
Did the umpires get the call correct? Yes, umpires supervisor Rich Garcia said in the press box, citing Rule 7.06B. They ruled that Uribe obstructed runner Pagan, but the play is not ruled dead until a play is made on Pagan. So when Pagan got caught in a rundown, nothing else counted. “So that’s what the ruling is: Everything that happened after that didn’t happen,” crew chief Joe West said. “That’s what [Guillen’s] problem was. He said, ‘I come out here and got two outs, and when you put them back on got no outs. You’re going to have to kick me out. I can’t take that.’ He didn’t use any profanity. He was very gentlemanly.”
— Tribune
