MLB: Sox avoid first sweep of season, beat Cubs 7-0

The Sox won the season series 4-2 and lead the all-time series 49-41.

“These games [against the Cubs] don’t really mean more than any games, but fans seem to think they do, so you come out a little more excited and try to play well,” White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “At the end of the year, it’s just one game in the standings.”

Just a week ago, the last North-South game of the summer was one matching possible All-Stars Chris Sale and Ryan Dempster. But Dempster was placed on the disabled list, and Sale had his start pushed back 2 days to
conserve the lefty’s arm strength.

Fans instead got to see the Cubs’ Randy Wells come out of the bullpen and the Sox’s Gavin Floyd try to win for the second time in seven starts.

“Frustrating is just one of those words that’s thrown around, but he’s the one that has to go through it,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said of Floyd. “As a team, I think part of him pitching is the pressure of not letting people down. Those are probably bigger than just the frustrations. He’s trying to do a lot, and he just needs to be himself.”

Floyd was staked to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Wells walked two batters, one scoring on Adam Dunn’s single and the second on Paul Konerko’s single.

The lead went to 3-0 in the fourth, when Wells allowed singles to Alexei Ramirez, Alejandro De Aza and Gordon Beckham, who was Wells’ last batter.

Beckham was back again in the sixth inning with a three-run homer, matching his career high with four RBI. The homer came with Eduardo Escobar (single) and De Aza (walk) on base.

Floyd came through with one of his best performances. The right-hander struck out four while walking just one batter in 6 1-3 innings. It was a huge improvement after going 1-4 with a 10.38 ERA in his previous six starts. He also got his first win in five outings against the Cubs and is now 1-3 against them.