Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer on Sep 17, 2008 2:00PM

Cubs Outlast Brewers
The Chicago Cubs handed Milwaukee ace C.C. Sabathia his first loss in a Brewer uniform and moved closer to a second straight division title with a 5-4 victory. It was the Cubs fifth straight victory as they seemed to have shaken that September Slump. Ryan Dempster struck out nine and allowed only two runs over six innings to earn his 16th win; Kerry Wood made it interesting by allowing the Brewers to draw within one run and put two men on base before striking out Prince Fielder to clinch his 31st save. Dempster's win (and every win here on out) set a career-high. "When you have personal success, it's far more enjoyable when your team is doing so well, it really is. But at the same time, I don't want it to end there. I'd like to get a few more, and hopefully some late in October would be really nice." Alfonso Soriano smacked his 29th homer run and Aramis Ramirez hit two doubles and drove in two runs. Henry Blanco had a pinch-hit RBI single in the eight that proved to be the game-winning hit. If the Cubs, who now lead the Brewers by nine games, manage to sweep the series, they'll officially clinch the division.

Sox Spank Yanks
Gavin Floyd gave the Sox an excellent start and the Sox bats did the rest as the Pale Hose rebounded from last night's loss to beat the Yankees 6-2. Alexei Ramirez had a solo home run and Juan Uribe had two RBIs in going 3-for-3. Floyd pitched seven strong innings, allowing two runs and striking out four; Thornton and Jenks added a scoreless inning each to wrap the game up. First baseman Paul Konerko played for the first time since spraining his MCL last week and said, "Usually when you are out for a few games, you try to see some pitches when you come back. But I tried to get going early. I just felt like the first good pitch I saw, get off on that in any at-bat. I felt like I did seven days ago, which is good, because I felt good then." A Victor Martinez walk-off home run helped the Indians dump the Twins and extended the White Sox lead in the AL Central to 2.5 games. Their magic number to clinch the division remains at 10.