Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 17, 2009 3:00PM

Sox Sink In Seattle
For the Sox, on the outside of the playoffs and looking in, every game counts, which makes last night's 4-1 loss to Seattle tough to swallow, especially given a Detroit victory. Adding injury to insult was the exit of Gavin Floyd after only three innings of pitching due to a sore hip. Floyd gave up three runs to the Mariners before leaving. Meanwhile, the Sox offense was handcuffed by Mariners pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith, who surrendered only a home run to Gordon Beckham in the eighth. With the loss, the Sox find themselves still in third place and once more 6.5 games back of the division-leading Tigers. Said manager Ozzie Guillen after the game, "Every time we win, it's hope. Every time we lose, it's not a good day for us, no matter the score or how we lose, especially when teams we chase win." The Sox try to keep hope alive when they close out this road trip against Seattle today at 5:40 p.m. (CSN).

Brewers Dump Cubs
The Cubs didn't fare that much better than their South Side counterparts. As they've gotten close enough to sniff the Wild Card, they lost ground via their 9-5 loss to the Brewers last night. Not helping matters was a shaky start from Rich Harden, who - not known for his endurance anyway - lasted only three innings, giving up five runs in the process. The Cubs batted around a few runs in the third and then got a two-run homer from Aramis Ramirez in the fifth, but it wasn't enough as reliever David Patton gave up another four runs to the Brewers in relief. Harden's a free agent after this season but we don't know if he'll wind up back in Cubbie blue in 2010. If he does, we hope it's for less than the $7 million he earned this year. The division rivals finish up the series today at 1:20 p.m. (WGN).