Garcia rebounds to pitch ChiSox past Cubs

CHICAGO (AP) -- The White Sox brought their brand of aggressive

baseball 8 miles across town and gave the Cubs a glimpse of why

they own the best record in the majors.

Freddy Garcia threw inside early and outpitched Greg Maddux, Joe

Crede and Jermaine Dye homered, and the White Sox had four

run-scoring hits with two outs to beat the Cubs 5-1 Friday for

their 30th win.

Winning at Wrigley Field made it all the more enjoyable.

"It's definitely a lot of fun playing in a series like this.

There are a lot of fans and electricity," Crede said. "It's so

much better."

On a breezy, 62-degree day before a crowd of 38,988, the White

Sox pecked away at Maddux and pulled out to a 4-0 lead.

"We got some big two-out hits," said White Sox catcher A.J.

Pierzynski, who played last year with the Giants. "I was there for

Maddux's 300th win. It was kind of cool, they said it might never

happen again. He's a great pitcher and a Hall of Fame pitcher and

today we got the best of him."

Garcia (4-3), who'd given up 11 earned runs and 18 hits in his

previous two starts over 12 1/3 innings, surrendered five singles.

He lost his shutout bid in his seventh and final inning on an

unearned run. Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi dropped Henry Blanco's

popup for a two-base error, and Jerry Hairston hit a two-out RBI

single to make it 4-1.

But Garcia set the tone in the first inning. After Maddux had

hit Iguchi with a pitch in the top of the inning, Garcia came in

high and tight on Hairston, the Cubs' leadoff hitter, and moments

later plunked Derrek Lee.

It prompted a warning from plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth to both

benches.

"You've got to pitch inside," Garcia said. "I don't try to

hit anybody. I'm not the kind of guy to hit people. I like to throw

inside."

Maddux had no problem with the warning.

"I didn't hit my guy on purpose, that's for sure," he said.

"Umpires got to ump. I don't think it really affected how either

of us pitched the rest of the game, to be honest."

Lee wasn't upset by being hit but was surprised by the early

warning.

"I think it's just of those things where Maddux has such good

control if he hits someone, they think he did it on purpose. So

maybe they thought it was retaliation. I wasn't thinking it was,"

Lee said.

Mired in a 1-for-21 slump, Crede hit his fourth homer leading

off the fifth to give the Cubs and Garcia a 2-0 lead. His long

drive to left sailed through an 16 mph wind blowing in.

"I guess the wind changed when I hit it," Crede said with a

laugh.

And then the White Sox went to work against Maddux. Scott

Podsednik and Iguchi singled and, with two outs, Paul Konerko

delivered an RBI single on an 0-2 pitch. Pierzynski followed with

his third straight single to make it 4-0.

Maddux (2-2) gave up four runs -- three earned -- and nine hits in

seven innings.

"Maybe I pitched just good enough to lose today, instead of

good enough to win," Maddux said.

Dye's seventh homer, a solo shot off Mike Remlinger in the

eighth, put the White Sox ahead 5-1 and gave their fans more reason

to be heard in the Cubs' park.

"There were a lot of Sox fans, it's usually all Cubs fans,"

Lee said. "They were kind of going back and forth. You just kinda

hear them rooting for their team."

Lee, a sure-handed first baseman, couldn't come up with Crede's

hard-hit ball that bounced just before getting to him, and he was

charged with an error in the third. After a sacrifice, Podsednik

hit another shot that went off glove as he ranged toward the

second-base bag and tried to backhand it. The ball deflected into

short center field for an RBI single as Crede never let up and

scored.

Lee's rare error got the White Sox started.

"I was just kind of trying to smother it. He kind of queued it,

it was spinning a lot and I was trying to knock it down, but it

just kicked back, hit off my glove and kicked back," Lee said.Game notes
Crede also made a couple of nice plays at third. ... Cubs C

Michael Barrett, who has a sore shoulder, didn't start. Henry

Blanco did. ... The White Sox lead the interleague series that

began in 1997 23-20. ... Guillen, who'd complained that he had to

park in a fast food restaurant lot across the street last year when

the White Sox came to Wrigley, was pleased this time, saying he was

next to Baker. Guillen said he had some trouble finding Wrigley

Field because third base coach Joey Cora was driving and took the

wrong street. "He didn't know how to get here. It was a little

embarrassing to come down here and ask people, 'Where's Wrigley

Field?" Guillen said, laughing. "Joey got lost, not me. I was

sleeping in the back seat of the car. We took the wrong street. My

kids were saying, 'We got to go this way, this way."