CHICAGO - Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto hit consecutive homers to tie the game in a four-run eighth inning, then Alfonso Soriano singled home the winning run in the ninth to give the Chicago Cubs a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox yesterday.
The crosstown rivals split a rain-shortened, two-game set at Wrigley Field. Their all-time interleague series is tied 34-all.
Pinch-hitter Reed Johnson started the ninth with a single, moved up on a sacrifice, and scored on Soriano's two-out single to right-center off Matt Thornton (4-2). Soriano was 14 for 102 before singling in his final two at-bats.
Kevin Gregg (1-1) got the win with a scoreless ninth.
With the Cubs trailing, 5-1, Lee hit a three-run homer in the eighth. Soto followed with a solo shot off Scott Linebrink to tie the score and send the crowd into a frenzy. All four runs were unearned after an error on second baseman Chris Getz.
Alexei Ramirez's two-run homer in the seventh off Carlos Zambrano gave the White Sox a 3-1 lead. They tacked on two more in the eighth off Carlos Marmol on an RBI double by Getz and a run-scoring single by Gordon Beckham.
But Linebrink couldn't hold the four-run lead. Getz made his second error of the game on pinch-hitter Micah Hoffpauir's leadoff grounder.
After Soriano singled, Linebrink got Ryan Theriot to pop out and struck out Milton Bradley.
Chicago Whtie Sox 000 001 220 – 5 10 2
Chicago Cubs 000 001 041 – 6 9 0
Chi.WhiteSox AB R H BI Avg. Chi. Cubs AB R H BI Avg.
Podsednik lf 5 0 0 0 .306 A.Soriano lf 5 1 2 1 .229
Al.Ramirez ss 5 1 2 2 .254 Theriot ss 4 1 1 0 .282
Dye rf 5 1 1 0 .270 Bradley rf 3 0 2 0 .243
1-Wise pr-rf 0 0 0 0 .133 D.Lee 1b 4 1 1 4 .277
Konerko 1b 5 1 1 0 .291 Soto c 3 1 1 1 .220
Pierzynski c 4 0 0 0 .294 Fontenot 3b 2 0 1 0 .235
Bri.Anderson cf 3 0 2 1 .242 c-J.Fox ph 1 0 0 0 .357
Getz 2b 4 1 2 1 .256 Gregg p 0 0 0 0 ---
Beckham 3b 2 1 2 1 .175 Fukudome cf 3 0 0 0 .261
