Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Aug 24, 2008 3:45PM

Cubs Crush Nats
A pair of Aramis Ramirez three-run homers and a strong outing from Ryan Dempster helped the Cubs cruise past the visiting Washington Nationals 9-2 on Saturday afternoon. Dempster gave up eight hits but allowed only one run in seven and a third innings of work to to tie his career-high with his 15th win of the season. Said Dempster, "The most I've ever won in my career is 15, and it's nice to get there. But I'm not going to get complacent. I'm not finished trying to accomplish what we're trying to do here. It's great, it's a nice feeling to have. But at the same time, there's a long way to go and a lot of starts left." Mark DeRosa homered for his third straight game and Alfonso Soriano had an RBI double to help out the cause as well. The Cubs close out the series this afternoon, sending ace Rich Harden to the mound.

Sox Bullpen Blows Lead
What started out as a perfect game for almost six innings for Javier Vazquez quickly imploded as he and the bullpen gave up four runs in the eighth inning as the Sox fell to the Rays 5-3. Vazquez was pulled in the eight inning with the bases loaded and reliever Matt Thornton struggled, walking in a run and giving up back-to-back singles to allow four runs total to score. Ozzie wasn't happy with his bullpen's performance: "The difference between those two games between the Rays and the White Sox was the bullpen. That's it. Their bullpen held on and we couldn't the last two days." Jermaine Dye provided most of the White Sox offense, hitting two solo home runs which accounted for two of the Sox four hits. Mark Buehrle takes the mound this afternoon as the Pale Hose try to salvage a win from the series.