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Quentin's home run gives White Sox win

Sunday, June 29, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) -- Manager Ozzie Guillen reversed the question as soon as it was asked. Where would the Chicago White Sox be without Carlos Quentin?

"He's played great for us. He's gotten big hits and shown a lot of people out there," Guillen said. "At the same time, where would Quentin be without us?" Maybe still trying to find his way with the Arizona Diamondbacks where he dealt with injuries and lost his starting job a year ago before being traded to the White Sox in the offseason.

Quentin has been the biggest surprise for the White Sox the first three months of the season and he delivered again Saturday, leading off the bottom of the seventh with a tiebreaking homer to lead to a 6-5 win over the Cubs.

Quentin drove an 0-2 pitch from Carlos Marmol (1-3) for an opposite-field home run into the Cubs' bullpen in right field -- his 18th of the season -- to snap the 5-5 tie.

"I've been thankful to the White Sox for giving me an opportunity to get me on the field and play. Knowing that when I was traded over here that I'd have to earn it, I welcome that because that's how it should be," Quentin said.

Derrek Lee was 5-for-5 with three RBIs for the Cubs, who've lost seven of 11. He led off the top of the ninth with a double and moved to third on an infield out.

But Lee was stranded when closer Bobby Jenks got Aramis Ramirez to ground to short with the infield in and retired Jim Edmonds on a grounder to second to end the game.

"It's not fun right now, but we're going to bounce back. We're good a team. We are going to get healthy. We will be all right," Lee said. Lefty Scott Eyre became the fourth key player to go on the DL on Saturday, joining Carlos Zambrano, Alfonso Soriano and Reed Johnson.

Jermaine Dye and Alexei Ramirez also homered for the White Sox, who were swept last weekend by the Cubs but have rebounded and won four of five.

Both teams are still in first in their respective divisions and even though the White Sox lead was only one-half game before Saturday, Cubs manager Lou Piniella had an opinion on the AL Central.

"The White Sox should win that division by half a dozen games or more, if you want to know the truth. They have just about everything that's needed. They have power, they have a good defensive team on the field and they have a hell of a bullpen. Good starters," Piniella said.

"Everybody looks at the Cubs. Look at the White Sox."

Guillen said if that's Piniella opinion, he appreciates it. But if he offered it, it would be received much differently.

"I think Lou knows the game and knows what he has," Guillen said.

"If I said that thing, people in the city would be like 'Look at that, another stupid thing he just said.' Coming from Lou, God bless him."

Matt Thornton (4-1), the third of five White Sox's relievers, pitched 1 2-3 perfect innings, striking out four of the five batters he faced to get the win. Jenks' save was his 18th in 21 chances.

With Lee on third in the ninth, the White Sox decided to pitch to Ramirez, even though he hit four homers against them last weekend at Wrigley Field.

"I'm not a guy who likes to put people on base when you have a chance to lose a game in this ballpark, no matter who the hitter is," Guillen said.

Cubs starter Sean Gallagher worked six innings, giving up eight hits and five runs.

White Sox starter Javier Vazquez labored through 4 1-3 innings, allowing nine hits and five runs with three walks.

The Cubs scored two in the top of the first when the first four batters reached. Kosuke Fukudome walked and Mark DeRosa, Lee and Daryle Ward singled to give Gallagher an early two-run cushion he couldn't maintain.

Dye hit a two-out, two-run homer to tie it -- his eighth homer in the last 12 games and 18th of the season. After Jim Thome walked, Joe Crede hit an RBI double for a 3-2 lead. Orlando Cabrera's RBI double made it 4-2 in the second.

The Cubs loaded the bases in the third on two singles and a walk, but Sox third baseman Crede made a fully extended catch of Geovany Soto's liner in the hole to end the inning.

DeRosa cut it to 4-3 by hitting an RBI single to score Mike Fontenot, who led off with a double in the fourth. Lee followed with a two-run double off the fence in left-center and the Cubs had a one-run lead.

Ramirez, who missed Friday's game to be with his wife as she delivered their child, homered just over the left-center fence leading off the bottom of the inning to tie it.

Notebook

White Sox 1B Paul Konerko, who is on the DL, took batting practice on the field Saturday and said he had some discomfort in his strained oblique muscle. Told by the team's training staff it was a normal reaction, Konerko will try it again Sunday and hopes to go on a rehab assignment next week.

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