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White Sox slam Dempster, Cubs

Jun 28, 2008 - 12:31 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago White Sox exacted a measure of revenge on the Chicago Cubs Friday.

Nick Swisher hit a grand slam and Jermaine Dye drove in three runs as the White Sox rolled past the Cubs, 10-3, at U.S. Cellular Field.

Carlos Quentin had four hits and two RBI for the White Sox, who were swept by the Cubs last weekend at Wrigley Field. The Cubs had outscored the White Sox, 22-11, during the sweep.

"I think there a huge difference playing here," Swisher said. "When you are at home, you get in your routines. It's the same for (the) Cubs, they play pretty well at home too. When we are in our backyard, we are more comfortable and today we showed it."

The team from the south side of the "Windy City" got on the board early in this one as Quentin drove in Orlando Cabrera in the bottom of the first with an RBI single to center.

After Derrek Lee grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the third, the White Sox erupted in the bottom half of the inning to essentially put the game away.

"We are going to be aggressive on the bases," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Cabrera is a smart player and he did some nice running on the bases."

Cabrera hit a one-out double and then scored on A.J. Pierzynski's RBI single to left. Pierzynski also moved to third on an error by Cubs left fielder Eric Patterson.

Quentin followed with an RBI double and then scored on Dye's single to left, extending the advantage to 4-0. After a pair of walks loaded the bases, Swisher hit a 1-2 offering from Cubs starter Ryan Dempster into the bleachers in left-center field, giving the White Sox an 8-0 bulge.

"The first time I faced Dempster, I had no success at all," Swisher said. "So I was trying to get something in the air, I was down 1-2 but he left me slider on the outside of the plate and I got lucky to get the barrel on it."

The blast ended the day for Dempster (9-3), who had his shortest outing of the season. The righthander dropped to 0-3 away from home and surrendered eight runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings.

"Today I didn't pitch very well," Dempster said. "That third inning I made mistakes after getting a head of guys. They just took advantage of all my mistakes and 'Swish' just blasted it and that was unfortunate."

The run support made a winner out of White Sox starter Jose Contreras (7-6), who snapped a personal three-game losing streak, allowing three runs and seven hits in six-plus innings. Contreras had allowed a season-high nine runs over 3 1/3 innings in a loss at the Cubs last Saturday.

"Jose did have trouble with his command and was getting in trouble," White sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "But in the end, he made big pitches when he had to."

Rookie Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth and Jim Edmonds homered to lead off the seventh, supplying the Cubs' offense.

"I think we just have had a couple of bad days," Soto said. "We got some home runs late but Contreras used all his pitches and kept us off balance for the most part."