White Sox Cruise, Big Z "Misunderstood"

The Chicago White Sox are absolutely crushing it lately, cruising to their 11th consecutive victory with a 3-2 win over the struggling cross-town Cubs Saturday.

With one out in the eighth, Paul Konerko nailed his 19th homer of the season off reliever Andrew Cashner to break the 2-all tie and lead the Sox to their 11th straight win -- the club's longest streak since back in 1961 when they won 12 games in a row -- and 15th of their last 16.

J.J. Putz got the W with a scoreless eighth after Freddy Garcia went seven innings, surrendering eight hits with five strikeouts. The Cubs wasted a decent outing by Carlos Silva, who gave up just three hits over six innings, walking one and fanning four.

On June 8, the White Sox were sitting at a dismal 24-33 and 9 1/2 games out of first after losing to their divisional foe Detroit. Now, for the first time since last July, they are five games above .500 at 39-34, just 1 1/2 games behind the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins.

Color me impressed.

Speaking of the Cubs, Carlos Zambrano has been banished to the bullpen, if and when returns to the club from his recent suspension. Of course, instead of apologizing to his teammates and fans, Big Z claims his maniacal explosion in the dugout Friday was a total misunderstanding. From a source close to the pitcher:

All he wanted to do was pump the team up. It was completely misunderstood... Lee took it personally and told Zambrano to shut the fuck up.

Where I come from you catch more flies with honey, and calling the team you play for "horse shit" between ranting in raving in Spanish isn't the most constructive way to get the ball rolling.

[Chicago Tribune] | [Chicago Sun Times] | [Sport Shizle]