Morning Box Score

Cubs Drop Fourth In A Row
Has the traditional August swoon turned into a September swoon for the North Siders? The Cubs dropped their fourth game in a row Tuesday night, losing to the Houston Astros 9-7 in extra innings. Kerry Wood gave up the two-run homer to Geoff Blum. The game started out promising with Alfonso Soriano's lead-off home run, and Mark DeRosa, Geovanny Soto, and Jim Edmonds all added shots of their own as the Cubs offense came alive, but it was not to be, thanks to a scattered outing by Carlos Zambrano (whose prognosis does not appear good) and a poor relief appearance by Bob Howry. For all the Cubs fans wearing Old Style rose-colored glasses, Lou did his best to bring them back down to earth: "Did anybody think this was going to be real easy? You didn't hear that from me all year, have you? We're in a stretch now where things aren't going our way. We've got to keep playing and keep battling and keep our confidence, and that's it."

White Sox Drop Another To The Tribe
The Emotional Rollercoaster That Are The 2008 Chicago White Sox™ hit another dip Tuesday when they dropped their second straight game to the previously-struggling Cleveland Indians, 9-3. Starter John Danks gave up four runs over four innings, but the Sox scored three in the sixth to pull within one run. But the bullpen gave way, as D.J. Carrasco, Octavio Dotel, and Boone Logan combined to give up five runs in the seventh. As the Sox remained tied in the AL Central with Minnesota, manager Ozzie Guillen worried about his team's energy level: "It seemed like we were tired, it seemed like we were dead. I didn't see the energy, I didn't see the [grinding]. There's a lot of things we're missing."