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Big eighth inning leads Cubs past White Sox

May 20, 2007 - 12:43 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- For the second day in a row, the Chicago Cubs refused to lose to their cross-town rivals.

The Cubs put six runs on the board in the eighth to earn an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox in an interleague battle on Saturday.

Derrek Lee started the game on the bench due to pain in his neck, but came in as a pinch hitter in the eighth and blasted a grand slam off Boone Logan to cap the inning.

"Before the game I told Lou (Cubs manager Piniella) I could pinch hit," Lee said. "For me to give us some breathing room was an exciting moment."

White Sox reliever David Aardsma (2-1) replaced starter Javier Vazquez to begin the eighth inning with a 6-5 lead. The 25-year-old righthander yielded a leadoff triple to Ryan Theriot to begin the frame.

"Anytime you give up the lead especially in the eighth inning ...you feel like you let your team down," said Aardsma the former Cubs reliever. "Especially when it is your former team you want to get after them and show them what you've got. It definetly hurts."

Alfonso Soriano plated Theriot with a one-out single to tie the score at 6-6. Aramis Ramirez chased Soriano home with another triple. After Daryle Ward was walked intentionally, Michael Barrett grounded an infield single back to the pitcher to load the bases.

"Across the board we just did a better job of hitting," Barrett said. "We saw guys hit the ball the other way and we got rewarded with a solid win."

The lefthanded Logan entered the game to faced the lefthand-hitting Jacques Jones. The Cubs countered by bringing up Lee, who blasted a 3-1 offering for the grand slam.

"I went out there and got behind on Lee but I wasn't going to give in with the bases loaded," Logan said. "When the count got to 2-1 he pretty much knew I was going to have to throw a fastball. Like all good hitters he did what he did."

Aardsma, who entered the game having yielded just two earned runs all season, watched his ERA jump nearly two full runs from 1.64 to 3.63.

The Cubs, who scored five runs between the seventh and eighth innings Friday to claim a 6-3 win, narrowed the gap against their cross-town rivals to 27-29 all time.

The Cubs opened the scoring in the second inning, when Ramirez led off with a single off Vazquez. Ward, who was starting in place of the injured Lee, plated Ramirez with a double to deep right-center field. Ward moved to third on Barrett's groundout and came home on a sacrifice fly to center by Jones.

"The conditions were the same for both teams," Vazquez said. "I always say anytime you keep your team in the game you have done a good job regardless of the score."

The White Sox jumped on top in the fourth with three runs off Cubs starter Jason Marquis. The righthander did not yield a hit through the first three innings, but had that string broken when A.J Pierzynski led off the frame with a single to center and moved to third on Jermaine Dye's double to left.

Rob Mackowiak, Tadahito Iguchi and Joe Crede followed with successive RBI single to give the White Sox a 3-2 lead.

"I just tried to keep making pitches," Marquis said. "I was determined to make them beat me with singles. I wanted to keep the ball in the ballpark. They strung together four or five hits but I kept my team in the game."

The Cubs jumped back on top with a three-run fifth. Barrett opened the frame with a solo homer to the opposite field in right. After Mark De Rosa walked, Marquis helped his own cause by blasting a two-run shot over the wall in deep center for a 5-3 lead.

"Marquis is an excellent hitter," Vazquez said. "He just went down and got a pitch and drove it out."

Marquis failed to hold his lead in the next frame, yielding a two-out single to Iguchi which Crede followed with his fourth blast of the season.

The White Sox re-took the lead in the eighth on a solo blast by Paul Konerko.

"On a day like today you just try to be objective about it," Konerko said. "Anytime the other guys are smoking balls down the rightfield corner, it's more a credit to them and what they were doing right then what our pitchers were doing wrong."