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It was a big weekend at U.S. Cellular Field with the Cubs and Sox meeting for their second series of the year. We took a few snapshots of the festivities.
The Cubs won a 2-1 squeaker at U.S. Cellular Field on Saturday thanks to a 9th inning squeeze play.
The White Sox offense has been struggling all season and no one knows it better than hitting coach Greg Walker. He talked with Rich King about the Sox before Saturday's game.
The Cubs kicked off the second Crosstown Classic with a 5-1 at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Cubs manager Lou Piniella met the media hordes before Friday's game to talk about their respective teams on the eve of the series.
The White Sox snapped their losing streak with a win over Houston on Sunday and Mark Buehrle finally got his 100th win.
One of the biggest reasons the Sox bullpen struggles have been so noticeable is that the pen continues to grow more important in baseball each year. It's the biggest change to the game I've seen in all my decades playing and broadcasting.
Forty years ago, you might see one or two guys who were decent relief pitchers and the other guys in the pen were starters who were trying to work something out. They didn't send them to the minors as much then and the guys who were starting threw a lot more innings than the "five and fly" philosophy we see so often now. The game has changed with specialization so that you need quality arms down there and several guys who know their roles. The advance of the bullpen is one of the reasons teams are tougher today.
Our division is also loaded with good bullpens. Detroit and Minnesota can match up with anybody in the late innings, and I think the Cleveland pen has performed much better than anyone would have predicted.
Hawk
The White Sox dropped their third straight home game to the Yankees Thursday night, leaving Ozzie Guillen to lament another poor bullpen performance.
The White Sox are hoping Josh Fields can hold down third base while Joe Crede recuperates from a back injury. Fields talked about his call-up with WGN's Dan Roan.
Jon Garland has been on a pretty good run of late. If you look at his history with the Yankees, he's got a good ERA against them. He had a good outing against them earlier in the year, but things fell apart at the end. Jon's last outing was his worst of the year but he was a bit under the weather and I expect he'll bounce back tonight.
Speaking of the weather, we're going to start a bit late with the Yankees bringing rain to town again for their second visit of the year.
DJ