The Morning After: Sox Win, Fire Draw, Cubs Lose
By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 16, 2010 3:30PM
Peavy Grabs Another W For Sox
Despite giving up three runs in the first and finding the Sox down 4-1 early, Jake Peavy settled down and wound up earning his third straight win of the season as the Sox rallied past the Royals for a 5-4 win. Ramon Castro's bases loaded single in the top of the 7th kick-started a rally that would win the game for the Sox; Juan Pierre tied the game later with a single and Andruw Jones would hit a sacrifice fly that scored Castro to give the Sox the lead for good. Overall, Peavy gave up the four runs and struck out five, going 8.1 innings before Matt Thornton took the save. Now at 15-21, the Sox hope to take the series this afternoon ahead of a hectic week of two two-game series and a three-game weekend series (1:10 p.m., CSN).
The Fire draw with KC and the Cubs struggle with Pittsburgh, after the jump.
Fire Blow Two-Goal Lead, Draw With KC
The Fire seemed on their way to earning a needed win against the Kansas City Wizards early last night, building a two-goal lead. But it wouldn't hold and the Fire would have to settle for a 2-2 draw with KC. Julio Martinez got the Fire on the board in the 14th minute, the first goal KC had allowed at home all year. The 1-0 lead carried to the second half when vet Brian McBride scored in the 48th minute to give the Fire a two-goal lead. But less than three minutes later, in the 50th minute, Kai Kamara put KC on the board. The game would stand at 2-1 for 40 more minutes until, in the 89th minute, Kamara got the equalizer after Fire goalie Andrew Dykstra stopped a shot but the rebound got away, leaving Kamara with an open half of the net to tip the score in.
The Fire now return home where they'll play four games at Toyota Park over the next two weeks, but only one of those will be an MLS match. This Wednesday the face Paris St. Germain in the Sister Cities Cup; next Saturday they'll have their second Sister Cities cup match followed by a match against FC Dallas on Thursday, May 27, and then host AC Milan on Sunday, May 30.
Cubs Lose Again
Like his South Side counter-part, Cubs' starter Ryan Dempster had a rough start but unlike the Sox, the Cubs couldn't manage a rally and fell once again to the Pirates 4-3. The Cubs have now lost 9 of their last 11 games and are 0-5 against the Pirates this year. Perhaps we were just a bit ahead of ourselves when we called the sweep by the Pirates two weeks ago the Cubs' nadir. Down 3-0 after the first, a two-run double by Aramis Ramirez brought the Cubs back to within a run, but the Pirates scored a run in the ninth, a key insurance run as the Cubs managed to score in the bottom of the ninth but, with the tying run on third and just one out, the Cubs couldn't bring it home. The Cubs, like the Sox, have a weird schedule this week with a pair of two-game series before a three-game set next weekend, so they hope to start it with a win today, salvaging the series (1:20 p.m., WGN).