Cubs Trample ChiSox, Finally!
The Cubs were fed up, tired of losing, especially to the other team that shares their town.
Jon Lieber wanted to put an end to it, prompting him to pitch one of his best games of the season.
Mark Grace had had enough so he slid on his belly like a rookie, moving from first to second a fly ball.
And veteran Glenallen Hill, upset by the body language of White Sox starter Jaime Navarro, pumped his first after hitting a homer.
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"The last series in Wrigley, we were embarrassed," said Lieber (8-3), who gave up seven hits and had a shutout until the eighth. "I thought about it all last night and I took it out to the mound."
The White Sox won the first four meetings in the spirited interleague matchup and that three-game sweep at Wrigley Field last month sent the Cubs nose-diving into last place.
But Saturday, Lieber walked none and struck out seven and Jose Hernandez and Hill homered for the Cubs, who won for just the eighth time in 29 games.
Before Hill's homer in the sixth, Grace showed how desperately the Cubs wanted to win. Standing on first, he tagged up after a fly ball to center and beat Chris Singleton's throw to second with a belly-first slide, banging up his arm in the process.
"A lot of times when you make a risky play, take an extra base, it can lift your club and right now this is a club that can use a few lifts. That's what I was trying to do set a tone," Grace said.
"It feels good to finally beat those rascals. They had every reason to feel dominant against us and today we finally played a good game."
Grace had a two-run single in the Cubs third and Hernandez homered in the fourth. Hill hit a two-run shot to deep center in the sixth.
The first six runs came Navarro (6-8), who has never pitched for the White Sox the way he once did for the Cubs. Navarro did strike Sammy Sosa out three straight times and got a little too excited about it according to Hill.
That's whhe pumped his fist after his homer made it 6-0.
"That home run was for Sammy. I didn't like it that Jaime struck out Sammy and was really animated when he was going off the field. He's like screaming `Yeah' and all this crazy stuff," Hill said.
"I don't think I ever gave a fist pump on a homer in my career. I just felt he was a little too animated for my taste and I am entitled to my opinion. I stick up for my teammates."
The Cubs added four runs in the ninth on an RBI single by Hill, two-run single by Jeff Reed and a grounder by Hernandez. Paul Konerko homered in the ninth for the White Sox, whose first run came after Ray Durham's triple and Singleton's grounder in the eighth.
Navarro was 29-18 in 1995-96 with the Cubs and then signed a four-year, $20 million deal to go across town. With the White Sox, he's 23-38 and has lost four of his last five starts.
He lasted 5 1-3 innings, giving up six hits and six runs, four earned.
Navarro's throwing error, one of three on the afternoon by the White Sox, helped the Cubs score three in the third inning, a rally capped by Grace's two-out single.
Navarro threw high to first on Curtis Goodwin's bunt.
"It happens," he said.
"I didn't get a good grip on the ball. I got Sammy out but then Mark took advantage and he had a bloop hit. We had a few errors and I have no control over that, but I was part of it, too. And in that inning, I gave up three runs."
Notes:
Attendance was announced at 44,008, 145 fewer than Friday night. It was still the fourth largest regular-season crowd at new Comiskey Park.©1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed