Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 20, 2010 1:15PM

Cubs Get Scare, Sweep
Yesterday was quite a roller coaster day for the Cubs. They took down the Marlins 13-3 to secure their sixth straight win and their second consecutive series sweep. But it didn't come without a strange scare. In the second inning, Wellington Castillo shattered his bat on a hit and as Tyler Colvin, on third base, came running down the line to score, a piece of the shattered bat struck Colvin. While the Twitterverse ran amok with the story that Colvin had been "impaled" by the bat, it wasn't anything that dramatic though still pretty serious; the Cubs have likely lost Colvin for the year as they have Geovany Soto who will require surgery on his right shoulder. But, injuries aside, the young B-Team Cubs that's been playing these days has, well, been pretty sharp. Castillo had three RBI yesterday while Bobby Scales and Brad Snyder each had two. Jeff Samardzija got the win on six innings of work, allowing three runs and striking out four. The team closes out a nine-game road trip 8-1, a momentum we like to see and one that gives us hope for the team's youth movement. The road-weary Cubs get a day off before starting their final home-stand of the season tomorrow night against the Giants.

Sox Slide Continues
On the flip-side of the young Cubs resurgence is the late-season White Sox slide. With the division, and therefore the playoffs, out of reach, the Sox continue to slid, losing to the Tigers 9-7 in 11 innings, their sixth-straight loss and their 10th loss in 12 games. The Sox scored twice in the first to go up 2-0 and were up 3-1 but the Tigers stormed back with six runs in the seventh to take a commanding lead. But still the Sox stuck around, rallying for four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and force extra innings. But Sergio Santos gave up a pair of runs in the top of the 11th that sunk the Sox for good as they were unable to answer with another rally; John Danks gave up seven runs over 6.1 innings in a rough start but it was Santos who was given the loss. Said Danks: "Our group of guys are tough-minded, for sure. It's fun to watch. We are going to battle until we can't win anymore. We put ourselves in a tough spot, and we are going to need a lot of help to climb out of this hole. One thing I know is we will try to win every game and try to keep as much pressure on the Twins as we can. But we haven't helped ourselves much on this homestand." The Sox now have the pleasure of travelling out West where they start a series in Oakland tonight (9:05 p.m., CSN).