Sipping on an Old Style at Wrigley Field is never a bad way to spend a hot Chicago Summer night. This season, with the Cubs comfortably atop the NL Central and careening toward the playoffs, the atmosphere at the park has a particularly intensity.Cub fans recognize this intensity as a familiar mixture of excitement, hope, and inevitable fear that something is bound to go wrong for the boys in Cubbie blue.  Night-after-night fans file into Wrigley, glancing at each other and wondering if the person next to them will be the next Steve Bartman.Despite the nervous nature that is learned at birth for a Cub fan, even the most skeptical of fans could not help but recognize the surge that was sent through the Wrigley Field crowd on Tuesday. As the voice of the public address announcer calmly detailed the terms of a trade that brought Rich Harden to the Cubs, an energy could be felt in the stadium.It was the energy produced by millions of Cub fans simultaneously committing themselves to being either giddy or heartbroken by season’s end. Following the announcement, the first place Cubs have responded, handing the Reds two decisive defeats that seems to acknowledge that there are no more excuses for failure. The team has momentum, talent, and the fans have surrendered their reservations.  With what most Cub fans pointed to as the team’s only weakness fortified, there should be no talk of curses, poor management, or years of inconceivable collapses. If this October does not bring a World Championship to Chicago’s north side, the entire world will know which 25 guys are to blame. 

No stranger to drama, A.J. Pierzynski found himself at the center of it again. This time, he didn’t mind.

Pierzynski led off the 10th inning with his second homer of the game and the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 6-5 Wednesday night for their seventh straight win.

“Ozzie was yelling at me to not try to be a hero and hit a single,” Pierzynski said. “When I hit it, I was like, its got a chance. But I didn’t know it was going to make it.”

It did, giving the White Sox a three-game sweep and their second 10-inning win in as many nights.

Pierzynski always seems to find himself at the center of the action for the White Sox, from reaching base on a controversial dropped third strike against the Los Angeles Angels in the 2005 playoffs to fighting with former Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in 2006.

This type of attention he’ll take.

Masa Kobayashi (4-4) pitched a perfect ninth before Pierzynski drove the first pitch of the 10th out to left-center for his seventh homer. Teammates mobbed Pierzynski as he crossed the plate.

Adam Russell (2-0) worked the 10th for his second win in as many nights and the second of his career.

C.C. Sabathia allowed five runs and seven hits in eight innings for Cleveland. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner struck out five and walked two.

The last-place Indians have lost five straight and are 12 1/2 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central. They could look to deal Sabathia if they continue to lag behind in the division, with the big left-hander eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

“I’m just worrying about day to day pitching,” Sabathia said. “I get the ball and that’s it.”

Grady Sizemore hit two solo homers for Cleveland, tying it at 5 with a drive off Scott Linebrink in the ninth.

“I made a bad pitch tonight and he got it,” Linebrink said. “You can’t make mistakes to him. You certainly don’t want to put him on the bases to lead off an inning in a close ballgame like that because you put him on the bases, the next thing you know he’s on second in scoring position. You want to be aggressive and go after him. It was a changeup up in the zone and he hit it. I’ve got to make a better pitch right there.”

Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye went deep in the first inning and Nick Swisher singled in a run in the second to give Chicago a 3-2 lead.

Sizemore walked and scored on Jamey Carroll’s triple in the fifth and connected in the sixth to put the Indians ahead, but Sabathia ran into trouble in the seventh.

Pablo Ozuna led off the inning with a grounder to third baseman Casey Blake, whose wild throw allowed Ozuna to reach second. Alexei Ramirez lined a one-out infield single off Blake’s glove and Brian Anderson followed with a two-run double to left-center.

Nick Masset was in line for his first win after pitching a scoreless seventh, but with closer Bobby Jenks getting the night off because of soreness in his left side, the White Sox turned to Linebrink in the ninth. He blew his second save in as many chances when Sizemore connected.

“I thought we did a good job of taking the momentum back our way,” Sizemore said. “Obviously it was still a tie game but I thought we had the momentum. I was confident we were going to win.”

Alexei Ramirez’s soaring fly ball was either going to land in the glove of Cleveland left fielder Ben Francisco to end the game or clear the fence and tie it up with two outs in the 10th.

The way things have been going for the Chicago White Sox lately, it was the latter.

Ramirez’s high fly was a game-tying homer off Indians closer Joe Borowski. And the White Sox pulled out a 3-2 victory moments later when pinch-hitter DeWayne Wise singled, stole second and scored the game-winner on Orlando Cabrera’s RBI single.

“Everybody did their part,” Cabrera said.

“A very good moment,” Ramirez said through a translator. “I knew I hit it hard, but I hit it so high I really wasn’t sure, so I just kept running. Until he jumped and it had landed, I didn’t really know, wasn’t sure.”

Francisco initially thought he had a play.

“I went to the wall and I thought the ball was going to come right down to me,” Francisco said. “And it blew over the fence.”

Adam Russell (1-0) got his first major league win with one-third of an inning, striking out Franklin Gutierrez with two on in the top of the 10th.

Casey Blake had given Cleveland a 2-1 lead with a long homer to left off Matt Thornton in the top of the 10th, but the Indians faltered again in their disappointing season and fell 11 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox.

“It hurts. Maybe kind of doing it in that fashion stings a little more. But they’re having a pretty special year,” Blake said. “It kind of reminds me of how we were playing last year. It seems like we found a way to win all the time.”

Borowski (1-3) blew his fourth save in 10 chances.

“In the position we’re in trying to play catchup, you can’t afford to let these games get away. … We had an opportunity and I let it slip away,” Borowski said.

Left-handers Cliff Lee of the Indians and John Danks of the White Sox dueled for eight innings and neither got the decision after a strong effort, leaving with the game tied 1-1.

Lee, who entered with an 11-1 record, gave up six hits and a run with one walk and three strikeouts. Danks allowed four hits and a run with a walk and eight strikeouts.

Kelly Shoppach led off the sixth with his sixth homer, ending Danks’ scoreless innings streak at 16 and tying the game 1-1. Danks tied his career high in both innings pitched and strikeouts.

Danks was watching from the clubhouse with reliever Scott Linebrink when Ramirez’s homer went over.

“To see that ball finally get out, it looked like he was going to have a chance to rob it,” Danks said. “It was very dramatic. When it got out, Scott and I jumped up and high fived each other.”

Chicago got to Lee for a run in the second when Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded following singles by Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome and a walk to Nick Swisher.

The White Sox threatened in the sixth when A.J. Pierzynski and Carlos Quentin singled to start the inning but Dye hit into a double play and the rally fizzled.

“It’s definitely frustrating to lose like that,” Lee said. “It’s a game that we had and we kind of let it get away from us at the end. But we still have a long season to go.”

Mark DeRosa and Ted Lilly got the Chicago Cubs back on track—DeRosa with two fine swings and Lilly with another impressive outing.

DeRosa hit a grand slam and also a two-run homer to match his career high with six RBIs, Lilly pitched eight shutout innings and the Cubs ended a four-game skid with a 9-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday night.

“It felt good to contribute,” DeRosa said. “Hitting the grand slam, I felt kind of put the game away. We needed this win, no doubt. We’ve had our share of adversity.”

DeRosa hit his third career grand slam and produced his second multihomer game, which he also did on Aug. 9, 2006, at Oakland while with Texas. His power stroke helped Lilly (9-5) win his fourth straight decision.

Lilly was on the cusp of his fifth career complete game and third shutout, his first since he blanked Boston in a 3-0 win on Aug. 23, 2004, for Toronto.

DeRosa’s two-run homer came in the fifth off Barry Zito (3-12), then he connected for the grand slam in the eighth against Billy Sadler to give him 10 home runs, matching his 2007 total. All five of his June homers were hit in California. DeRosa had five total RBIs over his previous 17 games.

“Lilly gave us a big game on the mound and DeRosa gave us a big game with the bat,” manager Lou Piniella said. “It was a good win for us.”

Lilly struck out for the fifth time to start the ninth and the Cubs fans still jumped to their feet to give him a warm ovation, despite him becoming the first pitcher to do so since Clay Hensley in 2006.

“That was pretty funny. It would have been more fun to hit a little bloop single somewhere,” Lilly said. “I felt like I tried every different swing and every different stance.”

The fans cheered again when Piniella lifted Lilly for Kerry Wood in the ninth following consecutive singles. Wood allowed Rich Aurilia’s two-run double.

Lilly had been campaigning for Piniella to use him as a pinch-hitter. But probably not now.

“I wouldn’t blame him, especially after what he saw tonight,” Lilly said. “I don’t think that I put much fear in any of those pitchers. I guess once the scouting report gets out, I’m done now.”

Matt Murton hit a two-run double and Kosuke Fukudome also drove in a run for the Cubs, who were swept by the Chicago White Sox over the weekend to end interleague play and had dropped eight of 12 coming into this four-game series.

Lilly outpitched Zito in a matchup of a pair of lefties and former A’s teammates, with Zito becoming the major league leader for losses and falling to 0-8 at home in the Giants’ waterfront ballpark—where a large contingent of Cubs fans were in attendance.

Zito had to throw an extra 16 pitches after an error by third baseman Jose Castillo in the second, allowing Fukudome’s RBI single for the Cubs’ initial run.

“He had some bad luck out there,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He had a tough error at a bad time.”

Zito, trying to win back-to-back starts for the first time all year, has a 5.99 overall ERA and 7.33 at home. Zito walked five in five innings to up his season total to 22. That’s after he didn’t walk a batter in his last outing for the first time in 2008. But he also had a season-best six strikeouts.

The $126 million pitcher also became the franchise leader for losses before the All-Star break.

“It’s real frustrating. There’s no excuse,” Zito said. “My stuff was crisp and that’s a good sign. I’m encouraged even if I didn’t get the result I wanted. We ran into Lilly tonight, who pitched great. I feel more like myself as far as my stuff goes. That makes this one even harder. I was ready to turn it around.”

Lilly has 17 career wins in June, matching his winningest months of May and September. He’s 9-2 over his last 14 starts after starting the year 0-3.

“He started off slow,” Piniella said. “I mentioned a month or six weeks ago his stuff was getting better. His velocity, and he worked on his curveball. You could see he was going to get on a little bit of a roll and he has.”

Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez is away from the team for three days to attend to a personal family matter, Piniella said. DeRosa is playing in his place.

“No one’s going to replace him,” DeRosa said. “He’s one of the best hitters in the game.”