Aramis Ramirez reached a new career milestone on Friday, but the Cubs dropped their series opener to the White Sox 6-4 at Wrigley Field.
The game was close until the seventh inning, with the Cubs and Sox trading runs off of their starting pitchers Randy Wells and Edwin Jackson. The Sox took an early lead in the top of the first inning when Wells gave up a one out sac-fly to score Juan Pierre, followed by an RBI single by A.J. PIerzynski.
The Cubs struck early too, however, narrowing the score to 2-1 in the bottom of the second as a leadoff walk to Carlos Pena came back to bite Jackson when the Cubs played small ball to score him with one out. One inning later, Darwin Barney doubled in Kosuke Fukudome, and then scored an out later on an Aramis Ramirez sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead.
Both pitchers settled down until the bottom of the sixth, when Aramis Ramirez took Edwin Jackson deep for the 300th home run of his career. But, the Sox came right back in the seventh, as Alexei Ramirez hit a two run home run to tie the game, and then a few batters later Juan Pierre hit a two run triple to put the White Sox up 6-4.
That’s all the Sox bullpen would need as they closed out the game. Sergio Santos recorded his 18th save of the season in the win.