Wood's Slam Takes Down Sox
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Cubs pitcher Travis Wood hit a fourth-inning grand slam off Jake Peavy and allowed two runs in six innings to lead the way in an 8-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field on Thursday.
Nate Schierholtz and Luis Valbuena each hit their sixth home runs of the year in an 11-hit effort by the Cubs offense, keying a fourth straight win overall and third consecutive convincing victory over their crosstown rivals.
Wood (5-3) hit his fifth career home run and second this year in the fourth inning with the Cubs leading 2-1.
Welington Castillo and Valbuena started the inning with singles and Peavy hit Darwin Barney before Wood's grand slam. It was the first grand slam by a Cubs pitcher since Jason Marquis hit one Sept. 22, 2008, in New York against the Mets.
The grand slam by Wood was also the first by a Cubs pitcher in Wrigley Field since Burt Hooton hit one Sept. 16, 1972, against the New York Mets.
Peavy (6-3) allowed six earned runs and eight hits in four innings. He also gave up four straight hits in the second inning for two runs that put the Cubs ahead for good. It was his worst start since giving up six runs April 9 at Washington in 5 1-3 innings.
With two outs in the second, Valbuena doubled, Barney singled him home, Wood singled and David DeJesus singled in Barney for a 2-0 Cubs lead.
Schierholtz homered leading off the fifth against reliever Nate Jones for a 7-1 lead and Valbuena hit a leadoff homer off Brian Omogrosso in the eighth.
Paul Konerko drove in the first two White Sox runs, one with a third-inning, two-out single and the other on a double in the sixth after Alex Rios had doubled. Alejandro De Aza drove in the final run with a ninth-inning single.
The White Sox came into the series at .500 (24-24) for the first time since April 8 after winning five of six games.
NOTES: The Cubs called up right-hander Zach Putnam from Triple-A Iowa and sent down right-hander Alex Burnett, a former Baltimore pitcher whom they signed off waivers Monday. Putnam had one inning of scoreless relief. ... A day after hitting three home runs in one game, Cubs catcher Dioner Navarro was back on the bench with starting catcher Welington Castillo in the lineup. ... The Cubs came into the game with the third-most errors in the NL (39) and the White Sox with the most in the AL (35), and both teams committed errors in the first inning.
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