Great comeback ... great choke ... not-so-great teams

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The Bald Truth

This one had the feel of a season-turner.

On the verge of falling two games under .500 for the first time since the first week of the 2008 season, the Cubs came from out of nowhere to score four runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to beat the White Sox, who had been on the verge of tying their season-high winning streak at four.

Some losses are easier to recover from than others; this will be a tough one for the Sox.

Meanwhile, the Cubs might have saved their season.

Then again, maybe I should cut the drama because these were just two mediocre teams that spent two days at Wrigley Field treading water.

Lou-ism of the Day

"Look, these guys get paid well because they've done things in the past. As frustrating as it gets at times, you've got to give these guys every opportunity to work themselves out of it." - Piniella, after the game Thursday, one day after he threatened to make big changes in the lineup but instead decided to stand pat.

Ozzie Being Ozzie

"Zambrano, I love - I love! - the way he handles stuff on the field. People say he's crazy, that he's out of his mind. I like that. I don't want people falling asleep on the mound. I like competition. To me, when he kicked the umpire out of the game, that was the funniest thing this year. That was awesome. Baseball needs people like that, more into the game. More enthusiasm. More competitiveness. I love him. I love to see him pitch. It's not because he's my friend (or a) fellow Venezuelan. Everybody from Venezuela is kind of calm. If you look at Magglio, Abreu, Santana - they're really low-key guys. Me and Carlos drink the wrong water or something. You don't see too many Venezuelan guys out there acting the way we do."

The Balder Truth

As soon as Ozzie yanked Gavin Floyd in favor of Scott Linebrink, my AP cohort, Rick Gano, predicted that the White Sox would blow the game.

Great call by a great writer.

By the way, I'm still trying to figure out why Guillen was saving Bobby Jenks. The Sox blew a late four-run lead to their hated rivals without ever even warming up their best reliever. Wow.

The Quote

"We have to win. It's no time to mess around. It's time to start winning ballgames. It's almost the middle of the season and we need to start turning our engine on and start playing better." - Zambrano

It's nice of Cra-Z and his Cubbies to finally realize they should start playing ball. All of you who bought tickets during the first two months of the season, feel free to contact the team for refunds.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

Tigers manager Jim Leyland benched Magglio Ordonez, a 2006 postseason hero, the 2007 AL batting champion and one of the highest-paid players in baseball.

Now that Alfonso Soriano delivered the winning hit against the White Sox, we might never know how close Piniella came to benching the biggest financial investment in Cubs history.