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White Sox-Cubs Preview

Sep 2, 2009 - 10:57 PM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Chicago (64-69) at Chicago (66-64), 2:20 p.m. EDT

As recently as a few weeks ago, Thursday's interleague makeup game in Chicago looked like it could be a key crosstown battle between two teams in playoff contention.

Instead, the Cubs and White Sox have fallen to the fringes of their respective playoff races prior to their meeting at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs will try to salvage a second straight split of the season series.

Both clubs won their divisions last year, and both were expected to make another run at the playoffs this season. At the beginning of August, the Cubs were a half-game behind St. Louis in the NL Central while the White Sox were 1 1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central.

Since then, both have plummeted in the division standings, with the Cubs' deficit reaching double digits while the White Sox (65-69) have slumped to third place.

The White Sox's 11-game road trip, which ends Thursday, has been especially ugly with eight losses in 10 games. They were on the verge of dropping their sixth in a row Wednesday before erasing a 2-0 deficit in the ninth inning and winning 4-2 at Minnesota.

With two outs and the bases empty against closer Joe Nathan, Gordon Beckham and Paul Konerko hit back-to-back home runs, and Alexei Ramirez's RBI single put Chicago ahead.

"We're not playing great, but we're still fighting for sure," Beckham said.

After the club traded for injured starter Jake Peavy at the July 31 deadline and claimed outfielder Alex Rios and his expensive contract off waivers last month, the White Sox moved in a different direction this week, trading Jim Thome and Jose Contreras.

That leaves Carlos Torres (0-0, 6.75 ERA) to start in Contreras' spot Thursday. It will be the third career start for Torres and the first since Aug. 8, when he gave up four runs and walked six in 3 1-3 innings of the White Sox's 8-5 win over Cleveland.

The Cubs (67-64) have kept their roster intact, but they have plenty of work to do if they want to make a postseason push. Those hopes were badly damaged by a 5-12 stretch that ended with them dropping two of three to Washington to begin their current homestand.

Back-to-back series victories since then may have come too late, but they received strong starting pitching the last two days from Randy Wells and Ted Lilly in wins over Houston.

Lilly threw eight innings in a 2-0 victory Wednesday, and Ryan Dempster will try to follow that up by winning his third straight start. After beating the Dodgers 3-1 on Aug. 23, he got plenty of run support and defeated the New York Mets 11-4 on Saturday.

Dempster (8-7, 4.15) has not pitched well against the White Sox this season, going 0-1 with a 6.55 ERA in two starts. He walked nine in 11 innings in those games as the Cubs lost both times.

The teams split six meetings last year, an outcome that can be matched with a Cubs win Thursday. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said the game would be still be meaningful despite the teams' fading hopes of making the postseason.

"Every time any team plays in Wrigley Field, it's exciting," he said.