It was a wild and wacky windup to the weekend, a nearly literal Cubs vs. White Sox, Round 3.
The KO went to the Sox by a final score of 6-0, although the majority of body blows came from Carlos Zambrano.
Not only did Zambrano lose his cool — hitting two Sox batters and nearly creating a bench-clearing brawl — but he put his Cubs behind in the all-time series 36-35.
Zambrano’s only good deed was keeping the 39,745 fans at U.S. Cellular Field as highly charged as he was all afternoon, making this a reprise of the 2006 series that produced a fistfight between catchers and Zambrano pointing at his head in apparent warning after a home run.
And he could have one more chance to create chaos Sept. 3, when the June 16 rainout at Wrigley Field is tentatively scheduled to be made up.
But it will be impossible for one game to top this intracity, interleague three-gamer, with the first two decided by one run and the finale turning into the best-of-three falls.
“The last two games feel like we played five or six games,” said Sox pitcher Scott Linebrink, who pitched two perfect innings in relief of John Danks.
The last game by itself — maybe the sixth inning by itself — had enough drama for five or six games.
That two-run inning, which gave the Sox a 5-0 lead, included a steal of home, a missed popup on an infield fly that resulted in a run, and a hit batter that led to the Cubs’ Ryan Freel taking one in the shoulder for Zambrano.
Dewayne Wise was the punching bag for Zambrano after Chris Getz scored from third on what was supposed to be a suicide squeeze but turned into a stolen base when Zambrano fired the pitch to the backstop.
Zambrano’s next pitch drilled Wise in the right hip, and Sox players jumped to the top step of the dugout ready for a 2006-style brawl.
“I don’t want to get into what he said,” Wise said of Zambrano’s mutterings as he went to first base. “But the benches didn’t clear, I got to first base and that’s it.”
Did Wise know what was coming after the steal?
“Yes. I figured he’d probably hit me there,” he replied. “That’s Zambrano being Zambrano. With his history, I figured he’d hit me.
“I just told him that wasn’t right and moved on from there. We won the ballgame. That’s the most important thing.”
