Cubs Sweep White Sox for Cup

The Cubs did not let up on the South Siders in the Crosstown Seris finale, capturing their first series win since 2007. The offense supported their pitcher to an early lead yet again, while also continuing the trend of two out clutch hitting. Luis Valbuena doubled with a pair of outs in the bottom of the second and Darwin Barney drove him in with a single. Travis Wood singled ahead of David DeJesus’ RBI base knock, which made it 2-0. The Cubs lefty paid for a lead off walk in the top of the third when Paul Konerko got the visitors on the board with a RBI single.

May 30, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Travis Wood (right) is greeted by second baseman Darwin Barney (15), catcher Welington Castillo (53) and third baseman Luis Valbuena (24) after hitting a grand slam home run against the Chicago White Sox during the fourth inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

From then on Woody pretty much stole the show, providing the exclamation point of the game and the series win with a grand slam of Sox starter Jake Peavy. The Cubs lefty unleashed his bat on fat 2-1 pitch and sent it just into the left field bleachers for the first salami by a pitcher since Jason Marquis did the same in Yankee Stadium a few years ago. Welington Castillo and Valbuena had singled ahead of Barney, who was hit by a pitch, to load the sacks for Wood. Nate Schierholtz added a solo job in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-1 Cubs before Konerko got to Wood again in the sixth, this time with a RBI double. Wood was pulled after six with the comfortable lead despite just 88 pitches thrown (56 for strikes) and collected six strikeouts as well. The all around effort earned Woody his fifth win of the season and kept his ERA at a stellar 2.75.

Zach Putnam made his Cubs debut by getting the last out of the seventh and Carlos Marmol tossed a perfect eighth as the former Cubs closer works to build up his trade value. Valbuena capped off his own honorable mention offensive day with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to go 3 for 4 with three runs and a RBI. Kevin Gregg was given an inning of work after being starved of a save situation since May 12th in Washington. Since then the Cubs have transitioned from being on the losing end of a bunch of games to blowing out the Sox day after day. Unfortunately for Gregg, the near half a month without a save opportunity may have made him rusty, as he finally gave up his first earned run of the 2013 season. The veteran reliever was able to clean up his own mess and preserved a 8-3 victory for the North Siders.

The Cubs improved to 22-30 while making a bit of a statement in the manner with which they disposed of the White Sox. The North Siders now find themselves back out of last place, ahead of the Brewers by three games.