Feeling Sweepy

3 games in Wrigley Field, 3 wins. The Sox continue their winning interleague ways by sweeping the Chicago Cubs at their home park and pushing their win streak to 4. Jake Peavy held the Cubs in check for 6.1 innings striking out 7. He only allowed 3 hits as he fielded his position extremely well, inducing multiple comebackers. Also licking his chops at having some chances with the bat, Jake got himself an RBI despite going 0-3. But Peavy with the bat is not the issue here; Peavy on the mound was dominant.

White Sox: 6
Cubs: 0

Each game of the series was pushed heavily by White Sox power bats and today was no exception. Maholm started off alright, causing Hawk to continuously count bounces in the first couple innings as he let up very little aside from choppers of the 2 and 3 hop variety. Then in the top of the 4th another back-to-back situation arose. First Gordon Beckham ripped one down the line and out of the park and Adam-12 followed with a blast to left center. Another homerun off of a lefty, I’ll have you know. Tyler Flowers joined in the solo HR party with a long shot onto Waveland.

In the 7th, the Sox elected to score some runs without the aid of the fence, plating a pair and moving the score to 5-0, where it would wait for one more padding run in the 9th. Less than a day after failing to secure a shutout for the team, the Sox bullpen came together in the form of Thornton, Crain and Addison Reed to lock this one down. It wasn’t smooth the whole way through, but they did it. That’s what matters.

Plus: Adam Dunn is obliterating any memory of 2011. That’s not exactly accurate because with each swing of the bat everybody points to some stat of his on the corresponding date from last season. He is, however, erasing the bitterness of Sox fans.

Minus: Not a ton to complain about when the team achieves a shutout in which a grand slam could not even tie it. Of course, that was very nearly tested, but overcome thanks to Jesse Crain striking out Ian Stewart with the bags juiced, 2 down in the 8th. Therefore I merely mention it here, but it is not truly a negative.

Tipping Point:
Gordo’s was the big kicker at a 13.1% change. Beckham has been slowly moving the line. If he could put together a nice hot streak his season numbers could even be respectable.

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