Maybe the White Sox will use this as a springboard in a division that appears to be wide open. But for the Cubs, this was a lost weekend at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs are going back to the drawing board. It was 91 degrees at game time on Sunday, and you got the feeling this could be a long, hot summer at Clark and Addison.
The White Sox climbed back to .500 with a 6-0 win in front of 38,374 fans. The sweep dropped the Cubs to 11 games under, a new low point, even if everyone knew this was going to be a bridge year.
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A six-game losing streak had manager Dale Sveum thinking about making changes to the top of the order, moving Starlin Castro out of the No. 3 hole and lobbying for top prospect Anthony Rizzo to be called up from Triple-A Iowa.
Getting swept by the White Sox at home is about as low as youre going to get through a seven-day stretch, Sveum said. You hope that the fans understand and stay patient the rest of the year.
If the city learned anything from this three-game series, it could be that these two teams are heading in opposite directions.
Kerry Wood stole the show with a calculated two-day retirement announcement, and an unexpected, heart-warming moment with his son, hugging Justin and carrying him down the dugout steps.
Chairman Tom Ricketts kept a very low profile after the details of his fathers political activities were leaked to The New York Times. The security concerns about the NATO summit were unfounded.
The rivalry left a mark around Paul Konerkos left eye, but no bad blood between Jeff Samardzija and the White Sox captain. The beanball war never really escalated. Check back next month on the South Side.
We are very disappointed, Alfonso Soriano said, because the way that we play against them is not acceptable.
Soriano is playing through the pain in his left knee, and the Cubs had already made 10 moves on their 25-man roster in four days. They couldnt take advantage of the conditions and tee off the way the White Sox did against Paul Maholm.
We had a lot of opportunity to score a lot of runs with the wind, Soriano said. But sometimes we see the flags like that and were not concentrating and seeing the ball and hitting it. We see the wind and we forget that we have to hit the ball first.
Maholm had spent his entire career in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization until signing with the Cubs last winter and breaking the news on his Twitter account.
Maholm (4-3, 4.73 ERA) watched the White Sox take shots at Waveland AvenueGordon Beckham, Adam Dunn and Tyler Flowers each homered. Welcome to Cubs-Sox.
Well, obviously, it sucked because we lost three games, Maholm said. When I went out there, I didnt worry about a big rivalry series or whatever. I was trying to make pitches, and I did early. I missed some pitches and they hit home runs.
So hopefully whenever we re-up the crosstown cup, we can sweep em at their place. Its kind of like kissing your sister and just go for a tie.
A lot will happen between now and then. Though the schedule eases up a bit with a trip through Houston and Pittsburgh, the Cubs will play 16 of their next 19 games on the road.
Whether its moving Castro up, rearranging David DeJesus and Tony Campana, giving more at-bats to Joe Mather or throwing Rizzo into the fire, Sveum is looking to shake things up.
We need some production, Sveum said. The bottom line is two months into the season we have to start producing, or were going to have to start making some changes.