Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 20, 2010 1:10PM

Sox Smash Twins
The White Sox finally showed their fans - and the Twins - some muscle last night, waxing Minnesota 11-0 and, in the process, cutting the Twins' lead to four games and maintaining hope that the AL Central Division crown is still within reach. Paul Konerko led the way for the Sox with a fantastic 5-for-5 performance, driving in four runs on his five hits which included his 31st homer of the year. Mark Teahen, Alexei Ramirez, and A.J. Pierzynski all had two RBI each in the rout. Mark Buehrle threw seven shutout innings for the win. Konerko was cautiously optimistic about the Sox' chances: "We've dug ourselves a hole here again, but there's still time to get back out of it. They had the better series. Tonight was good for us, but they did what they had to do and they won the series, so we can't be happy walking out of here just because we got a win, We've got to get back to work and try cutting into that deficit." They'll start in on that tonight when they begin a weekend series in Kansas City (7:10 p.m., CSN).

Cubs Slump Towards Finish Line
The Dog Days of August, indeed. The Cubs lost their seventh straight home game and their fourth straight as the Padres beat the North Siders 5-3, completing their first sweep of the Cubs in - literally - years. The Cubs actually led 2-1 late but a four-run seventh put the Padres on top for good, including a play where Will Venable sprinted for home even as it appeared Cubs catcher Koyie Hill had called time. Just one of those times where anything that could go wrong for the Cubs did. They try to snap the skid against Atlanta today in their first game against Derrek Lee who was traded earlier this week (1:20 p.m., CSN).