White Sox beat Cubs in South Side battle

CHICAGO (AP) – Miguel Olivo and Timo Perez homered, and the Chicago White Sox roughed up Greg Maddux and overcame two homers by Sammy Sosa to beat the Chicago Cubs 9-4 on Sunday.

The White Sox won two of three in the first crosstown series of the season. The teams meet again next weekend at Wrigley Field.

Paul Konerko, who hit three-run homers in each of the first two games, had three more RBIs Sunday. He got the White Sox started with a two-run, bases-loaded single in the first and later added a sacrifice fly.

Sosa homered in his first two at-bats against Esteban Loaiza (8-3), giving him 12 for the season and 551 for his career.

He launched a prodigious 454-foot solo shot that landed in the shrubbery under a fan deck in center – his first homer in nine games since coming off the disabled list, and his first since May 15. He followed that with a two-run shot in the third that put the Cubs up 4-3. Sosa finished 2-for-4.

In his first appearance against the White Sox, Maddux (6-6), had an outing he’d just as soon forget – he lasted just four innings plus, giving up 11 hits and nine runs.

A master of low pitch counts and control, Maddux got in trouble immediately. He gave up an infield single to Aaron Rowand and then walked Frank Thomas and Carlos Lee to load the bases before Konkero hit his two-out single.

Sosa’s first homer cut it to 2-1 and then Cubs subsequently loaded the bases on three singles before tying the game on Paul Bako’s fielder’s choice grounder.

Olivo homered to give the White Sox a 3-2 lead before Sosa’s second blast regained the lead for the Cubs.

Konerko’s sacrifice fly tied it and then Perez hit a two-run shot to right for a 6-4 lead in the third.

Rowand’s RBI grounder made it 7-4 in the fourth, scoring Willie Harris, who singled, stole second and made third on Bako’s throwing error. Aramis Ramirez’s second error of the game, on Olivo’s grounder in the fifth, allowed two more runs to score.

Loaiza gave up 10 hits and four runs before leaving after Corey Patterson led off the seventh with a single.

Notes: Cubs RF Todd Hollandsworth was forced to leave after fouling a ball off his right shin in the third. He was replaced during the at-bat by Tom Goodwin. X-rays were negative.

The teams combined for four homers, running the season total at U.S. Cellular Field to 125 in 39 games (70 for the White Sox).

Maddux, still five wins shy of 300, has already given up 17 homers in 16 games. Last year with the Braves, he surrendered 24 homers in 36 starts.

Thomas was ejected between the sixth and seventh innings, apparently for arguing balls and strikes.