Morning Box Score: Cleveland Beats up Sox, Cubs Slam Mets in Extras
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 12, 2011 1:30PM
Cleveland 7, White Sox 3: With the Detroit Tigers pulling away in the Al Central, this recently concluded series with the Indians was a battle for second place. True to form for the Sox' season, the two teams split the four-game series as the Indians roughed up Zach Stewart early. Stewart gave up three second-inning runs on four consecutive two-out hits. the bottom of the Cleveland lineup did most of the damage against Stewart yesterday. the Sox, as usual, had a hard time driving in runs. They were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.
On an emotional day at Citi Field (and would it have hurt Commissioner Bud Selig to allow the Mets to have worn ballcaps honoring the NYPD and FDNY on the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks?), the Cubs had to extra innings to beat the Mets after blowing another three-run lead. And even in extras, the Cubs didn't seem guaranteed to win. Carlos Pena's line drive provided the winning run and opened the floodgates for a six-run 11th. But reliever John Grabow promptly gave up a two-run homer to Jason Pridie before settling down and closing out the game.