Cubs can't pull off series sweep, but still win series against White Sox; Ian Stewart update; Is Anthony Rizzo on-deck?

The Cubs weren't able to pull off the series sweep against the White Sox tonight and lost 7-0.  However, the Cubs did already secure the series win against the South siders when they won the second game in a row against the Sox yesterday.  Randy Wells started for the Cubs tonight and allowed three runs on five hits and also walked four batters over 3 2/3 innings.

Randy Wells started in the final game against the White Sox on Wednesday (photo from Chicago Tribune)

Wells pitched two scoreless innings, but then walked Eduardo Escobar (who stole second) in the third inning and also walked Alejandro De Aza.  Both runners advanced on Gordon Beckham's sacrifice.  Then Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko both hit RBI singles to give the Sox a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, Alexei Ramirez singled with one out.  Then De Aza reached on an infield single to Starlin Castro, who missed the flip to Darwin Barney for the forceout.  Then Beckham hit a single that got past a diving Barney that scored Ramirez.  He left the game in the fourth inning with the Sox leading 3-0.

The Cubs also wasted scoring opportunities they had tonight, such as when David DeJesus hit a leadoff double in the third inning, but was left stranded.  “Those are things we have to get better at,” manager Dale Sveum said.  “We gave one away that we could have taken the lead on early (in the third inning) if we could have got the guy over and we swing at the first pitch and roll over and don’t get anything out of that.  That was probably the key of the game right there.”

One tense moment in tonight's game was when relief pitcher Casey Coleman was hit on the right hand by the barrel of Eduzrdo Escobar's broken bat in the seventh inning, even though he tried to get out of the way.  "It's always scary when something like that happens, but I got lucky," Coleman said. "It was the barrel that hit me on the knuckles.  It's scary when you don't see it and all of a sudden it gets you." The x-rays on his hand were negative.

The White Sox win the Crosstown series 4-2 games over the Cubs this season. 

In other Cubs news, third baseman Ian Stewart had a cortisone shot in his left hand and said, “My options now are just to see if this cortisone works and give it four, five days when I’m on the [disabled list] to really let it sink in and work and then slowly get a program going off the tee.  If the shot works, then it’ll carry me through the season and maybe get another one in another six weeks or so.  If it doesn’t, then we may have to go the other route.  We’re just going to see how it feels.”  Hopefully the shot will work and Stewart won't need surgery on his wrist.  Stewart won't touch a baseball until this weekend, when he will hit off a tee.

Third baseman Ian Stewart is hoping the cortisone shot will help with his wrist injury (photo from ESPN)

The Cubs have an off-day tomorrow and will travel to start a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Their next game is Friday at 8:40pm CT.  Jeff Samardzija will start for the Cubs and try for his sixth win of the season.  There has also been lots of talk about the Cubs calling up top prospect Anthony Rizzo from Triple-A Iowa this weekend for the games against the Dbacks, so we'll see if Theo and Co. are ready to make the leap.