Suddenly, a coaching search isn’t the only big decision facing the Chicago Bulls.

Now they have to figure out what to do with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

The Bulls were the surprise winners of the draft lottery Tuesday night, giving them the right to choose between Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose.

Hiring a new coach and deciding what to do in free agency already figured to take up plenty of general manager John Paxson’s time. He never figured one of college basketball’s stud freshmen could land in his lap.

“I try to stay realistic through all these things for the odds,” Paxson said on a conference call. “Tonight for some reason that ball popped up for us and we were there. Now it’s my job to make the most of it.”

Coming off a miserable season and still without a coach, the Bulls vaulted from the No. 9 spot, where they had a 1.7 percent chance of landing the top choice

“After this season, we needed a break and I think we just got one tonight,” said Steve Schanwald, the Bulls’ executive vice president of business operations who represented them on the podium.

Chicago will almost certainly choose between Beasley, the Kansas State forward who averaged 26.2 points and an NCAA-best 12.4 rebounds, or Rose, the point guard who carried Memphis within minutes of the national title.

“We’ll have an opportunity to get close to those guys. We’ll really take a long look at what makes the most sense for our basketball team,” Paxson said. “Having the pick puts you in a unique position to make your team better.”

The Miami Heat, who had a 25 percent chance of landing the top pick thanks to their NBA-worst 15-67 record, fell to second. The Minnesota Timberwolves will go third.

The Seattle SuperSonics, who moved up to No. 2 last year to pick Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant, fell from second to fourth. Memphis will pick fifth, followed by New York, the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee, Charlotte and New Jersey.

Indiana has the 11th pick, followed by Sacramento, Portland and Golden State. The lottery settled the top three spots. The remainder of the first 14 picks are determined inverse order of their record.

The NBA draft will be held June 26 in New York.

Chicago came into the season with high expectations after reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. But the Bulls never recovered from a dismal start and finished 33-49. They fired coach Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve and have already decided not to retain interim coach Jim Boylan.

The Bulls failed to land the coach they wanted, Mike D’Antoni, but the position became much more appealing Tuesday, giving them a chance to draft first for only the second time. The Bulls, who took Elton Brand No. 1 in 1999, could turn this time to hometown star Rose, who D’Antoni said was like Jason Kidd with a jump shot.

“Everybody was picking us to go to the conference finals last year, actually to the NBA finals because we won 49 games the year before and pushed the Detroit Pistons to six games in the second round last year and we have a very exciting good corps of young players, and we added Joakim Noah to that mix,” Schanwald said. “Now we will get a chance to add another great player, a really great player. So it is very exciting for us.”

Schanwald gave a fist pump early on when he realized he would move up, then took a deep breath and pumped both fists after beating out the Heat, represented by All-Star guard Dwyane Wade.

Only twice have teams with the worst record won the lottery since the current format began in 1994. Though the lottery is weighted to give teams with the poorest records the best chance to win, the longshots keep finding a way.

Last year, Portland and Seattle moved up to grab the top spots, taking Greg Oden and Durant. Again, two star freshmen are the top prizes.

“Obviously the lottery as a precursor to the draft is a time of great hope,” commissioner David Stern said.

The Bulls already had a busy offseason planned. Besides hiring a coach, they have to make contract offers to restricted free agents Luol Deng and Ben Gordon.

Now they’ve got another decision: Beasley or Rose?

“As I sit here tonight, what I think is again you’ve got two players who are different and unique,” Paxson said. “One is point guard. The point guard is a natural leadership position on a team. It’s something every team covets. And the other … just has the unique ability to put the ball in the basket, just will be a go-to scorer.

“I’m certainly not going to throw myself into this thing and do something quickly.”

Nor will the Heat. President Pat Riley likes both players, but implied the pick could even be traded.

“Based on their performance and what they did in one season, both of them showed that they can help their team win,” Riley said. “Both showed enough physical maturity to be dominant at times as a 19-year-old. All of the intangibles when it comes to competitive desire and when it comes to leadership and character and all of those things, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of a lot of players in the draft.”

The Bulls’ surprising victory should quickly restore interest in the underachieving team. Interviewed immediately following the result, Schanwald read the number for callers to buy season tickets.

“I thought it was a waste of time. I thought coming here was an absolute waste of time. I knew I would get a great meal out of it, but I thought it was a waste of time,” Schanwald said of the Bulls’ chances.

“I’m on top of the world. I feel great. It’s the most exciting day of my life,” he added

Geovany Soto didn’t get the automatic home run he deserved. Cubs manager Lou Piniella thinks he probably likes it that way.

Soto was credited with an inside-the-park three-run homer in the fourth inning despite replays showing that it should have been an automatic home run in Chicago’s 7-2 win over Houston on Monday night.

The ball bounced just to the right of the yellow line on the wall in left-center field.

“It was a home run, but I think he’d probably rather have the inside-the-park home run anyway,” Piniella said.

Astros center fielder Michael Bourn scooped it up and threw it home, but Soto scored easily before the throw got there.

“Never in my whole life had I had an inside-the-park home run,” Soto said. “I didn’t think it was out. It’s so big that left-center area I didn’t think I hit it over it. I thought double, maybe triple if they misplayed it.”

Daryle Ward was so sure he would play in the majors that he practiced his signature as a kid. He may get a few autograph requests after his latest big hit.

Ward delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double in the eighth inning, and the Chicago Cubs rallied again to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 Sunday after the anticipated showdown between Carlos Zambrano and Randy Johnson got wiped out.

“I love the game of baseball,” Ward said. “It’s something I knew that I was going to do when I was about 3 years old.”

Carlos Marmol (1-0) struck out two in a perfect eighth and Kerry Wood pitched the ninth to earn his seventh save in 10 chances and finish off Chicago’s three-game sweep of the NL West leaders.

Heavy rain and temperatures in the mid-40s delayed the start of the game by 58 minutes, and Zambrano and Johnson were spectators when it finally began. By the time the game ended, the Cubs had used another late rally to beat Arizona, the team that swept them in the playoffs last year.

Reed Johnson tied it at 4 with a two-run homer off Juan Cruz with one out in the seventh after Mike Fontenot walked. Cruz then walked Ryan Theriot before Tony Pena (0-1) got Derrek Lee to hit into a double play, but the Cubs struck again in the eighth.

Pena intentionally walked pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano to load the bases with one out and set the stage for Ward, who drove the ball to right-center to make it 6-4.

“Well, I’m not going to let Soriano beat us right there,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve got to have a chance for a double-play ball and we’ve got (Ward) hitting (.174) up there. That’s really not that tough of a decision.”

Ward also tied it with a pinch-hit RBI single in Chicago’s 7-2 victory over Arizona on Saturday.

Most days, Ward follows a heavy regimen of stretches and massages in case he gets called.

“Sometimes, you’re a little bit lazy and say, ‘I don’t want to do it,”’ said Ward, third among active players with 74 pinch hits. “But you have to. I feel like I’m making a good example for some of the younger guys that are playing on the bench. They do some of the same things I do, and it’s been working for all of us.”

It’s a lot of effort for about a minute of activity.

“Was it even a minute?” he asked on Sunday.

No one was sure, exactly. They just knew his timing was perfect, as was Reed Johnson’s.

Stuck in a 4-for-34 slump over the previous 11 games, he drove his first homer through a driving wind about halfway up the bleachers.

“The last week or so, we really haven’t been playing that well so I think this was a good confidence boost,” said Johnson, signed to a one-year deal in late March after Toronto released him.

Arizona’s Edgar Gonzalez was in line to get the win until Johnson went deep.

Recently booted from the rotation, Gonzalez allowed two runs and five hits before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth. One of those hits was a solo homer by Lee that gave Chicago a 2-1 lead in the third.

Cubs starter Sean Gallagher carried the lead into the fifth but couldn’t make it out of the inning. Reliever Chad Fox wasn’t much help, either, walking in two runs that inning.

Gallagher allowed four runs and five hits over 4 1-3 innings in his first major league start and likely will get another one against Pittsburgh this week. The 22-year-old right-hander had made two appearances this season after posting an 8.59 ERA in eight relief outings while splitting time between the majors and minors last year.

If the Cubs caught a break by missing Randy Johnson, who’s 12-0 against them, it was tough to tell.

Lee’s homer aside, they did little against Gonzalez.

“He did a pretty good job of keeping the ball down and got a lot of groundballs,” Arizona catcher Miguel Montero said. “He got ahead in the count, which I thought was a big key for him.”

Joe Crede’s cool approach helped the Chicago White Sox end a long night with a victory and hand New York Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain his first major league defeat.

Crede lined an RBI single to center to score Carlos Quentin in the bottom of the ninth as Chicago beat New York 7-6 and avoided a three-game sweep.

“I think the biggest thing is to be able to control your emotions out there. The crowd is getting into it, especially when there is a guy on base in scoring position, and you have a chance for the base hit to win it,” Crede said after his hit set off a wild celebration at U.S. Cellular Field.

“You just go up there and try not to do too much and you know I’ve faced Chamberlain only twice so far, once being yesterday, and you kind of go through in the back of your head what kind of pitches he has and what they do,” Crede added. “You try to figure out what you need to do to try to go out there and just get a base hit.”

And Crede, who’s earned a reputation for getting clutch hits during his career, got a 1-2 pitch from the hard-throwing 22-year-old right-hander and delivered.

Chamberlain had given up just three earned runs in 32 innings over 26 regular-season appearances since being called up last year. He gave up one earned run in 19 outings in 2007.

“I’m not perfect every night,” said Chamberlain, who was the subject of much attention this week when team co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said he should be starting instead of relieving. “I give up hits and that’s the way it’s going to be. I let my team down.”

Quentin doubled with one out off Chamberlain (1-1) and Crede lined a single to left-center to score him.

“He’ll be fine. He’ll bounce back. He’s given up a run before in his life,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Chamberlain.

Crede, who’s made a strong comeback after back surgery last season, has already hit two grand slams this season. He’s the guy the White Sox like to see when they need a big hit.

“We like our chances with Joe up. He’s done it all year,” White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “He’s done it his whole career. He was the right guy in the right spot.”

Bobby Jenks (1-0) got pinch-hitter Jorge Posada to ground into an inning-ending double play with two runners on in the top of the ninth to get the win in a game twice delayed by rain.

Trailing 6-3, the Yankees tied it when Melky Cabrera hit a two-out, two-run homer off Gavin Floyd in the sixth, and Morgan Ensberg delivered a two-out RBI single off Scott Linebrink in the seventh.

Ensberg started a third straight game in place of injured Yankees star Alex Rodrigez, who rejoined the team Thursday but again didn’t play because of a strained right quadriceps. Rodriguez had been in Miami where his wife gave birth to their second child.

Floyd worked before and after a 51-minute rain delay in the third inning, allowing five hits and five runs in six innings.

Yankees starter Phil Hughes is still looking for his first win after five starts. New York took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third before the delay but decided not to bring back Hughes, their promising 21-year-old right-hander. Hughes allowed just one hit in his brief two-inning stint while throwing 23 pitches.

The White Sox scored five in the fourth off reliever Ross Ohlendorf. Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single, Jim Thome walked, Paul Konerko had an RBI single, Jermaine Dye delivered a run-scoring single that skipped past Ensberg at third and Pierzynski added an RBI double over Bobby Abreu’s head in right.

Quentin then grounded to Ensberg, whose throw to the plate couldn’t get the sliding Dye as Chicago went up 4-3. Alexei Ramirez hit a ball down the right-field line that Abreu couldn’t reach and the RBI double made it 5-3.

Facing LaTroy Hawkins in the fifth, Thome hit his 513th homer and moved into sole possession of 19th place on the career list, breaking a tie with Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews. It gave Chicago a 6-3 lead.

Floyd had struggled with his control in the third, giving up a hit to Jason Giambi—who was batting .135—and walking Cabrera and Johnny Damon to load the bases. Giambi made a great slide around Pierzynski beating a strong throw from Dye, who caught Derek Jeter’s line drive in right field.

Abreu, who had a go-ahead grand slam in Tuesday night’s series opener, then doubled off the top of the left-field fence to drive in two, giving him 1,000 career RBIs.

In the sixth, Floyd gave up a two-out double to Giambi before Cabrera hit his fourth homer to cut Chicago’s lead to 6-5.

For one brief moment, a smile crossed Aramis Ramirez’s face when he learned the Chicago Cubs took the lead in the National League Central. Then, it disappeared.

The Cubs know how drastically fortunes can change, so they weren’t about to jump for joy over moving into first place on Sunday.

Ramirez tied a career high with four hits, including a two-run homer, in a 13-6 victory over Pittsburgh that gave Chicago its second three-game sweep of the Pirates this season.

Then, he had a question: “Did St. Louis win today?”

No, the Cardinals lost to San Francisco, so the Cubs took a half-game lead in the Central. Ramirez let out a smile and then it was gone.

“We still got, what, 150 games to go?” he said.

Actually, they have 144. But if Ramirez wants to prolong this season, well, so do the rest of his teammates

Chicago got big days from Ramirez and Ryan Theriot and won for the 11th time in 14 games. Theriot had four hits, scored three runs and drove in two. With Saturday’s 13-1 drubbing, this was the first time the Cubs scored 13 or more in back-to-back games since they did it against Florida and Atlanta on July 20-21, 2003.

Chicago banged out a season-high 18 hits, the most since it had 20 against Cincinnati last August 16, while sending Pittsburgh to its fifth straight loss. The win was Chicago’s ninth straight against the Pirates, matching the Cubs’ longest win streak against them since Sept. 5, 1938 to May 13, 1939.

“It feels great to be in first place,” starter Ryan Dempster said. “Now, the tough part is trying to stay there.”

Dempster (3-0) wasn’t feeling great after Pittsburgh scored three runs in the fifth to cut it to 5-3, but Chicago responded with five in the bottom half against reliever Franquelis Osoria. The Pirates committed two errors in the inning, and Ramirez capped the outburst with his fourth homer.

The four-hit game was Ramirez’s 18th and his first since Sept. 27 at Florida.

“I felt pretty good,” said Ramirez, who raised his average from .234 to .275. “I can’t say I’m right where I want to be because I only had (one) good day.”

At 12-6, the Cubs matched their best 18-game start since 2004. One reason is their patience at the plate. The Cubs walked seven times on Sunday after drawing 10 the previous day.

“We figure we should score runs,” Lee said. “We feel like this is what we’re capable of.”

Theriot is playing a big part, with a .338 average.

He singled in a run in the first to extend his hitting streak to seven and was 4-for-5. He doubled and scored in the third, and added an RBI double and scored again in the fourth to help Chicago build a 5-0 lead.

That was enough for Dempster, who was lifted for a pinch hitter in the fifth. He allowed five hits, walked two, struck out three and hit a batter in his shortest outing of the year.

It was a rough outing for Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke (0-1), who was 4-2 with a 2.01 ERA in nine previous starts against Chicago. This time, he allowed five runs and eight hits in four innings and his ERA climbed from 2.89 to 4.37. He walked two and hit two batters. Only 36 of his 69 pitches were strikes.

“You can’t overanalyze it too much,” he said. “You can get into a big downward spiral if you let yourself do that. I’m going to take this one for what it is and bounce back next time.”

The Cubs scratched Kosuke Fukudome from their lineup because of a small cyst above his right eye—a condition that manager Lou Piniella said is not serious while calling it “only a one-day thing.”

Once the Baltimore Orioles got two runs in the ninth inning off Bobby Jenks to force extra innings, they figured might as well take their improbable comeback to the next level.

“Once we got into extra innings, we said, ‘Why not just win this thing?”’ said Adam Jones, who helped them do just that.

Jones singled in the game-winning run in the 10th inning, giving the Orioles a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.

Baltimore trailed 5-2 in the eighth before rallying to split the two-game series.

After scoring their third unearned run to close to 5-3, the Orioles had to go up against Jenks, who entered in the ninth looking to go 7-for-7 in save situations. Brian Roberts got Baltimore within a run with a two-out RBI double, and Melvin Mora grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle to tie it.

Of Jenks’ 13 career blown saves, three have come at Camden Yards.

“When we tied the game, we knew we were going to win,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “That’s just the feeling that was in that dugout.”

Kevin Millar led off the 10th with a walk from Boone Logan (1-1) and advanced on a walk to Luke Scott. After Aubrey Huff hit a fly to left, Jones hit a liner inside the left-field line that scored Millar without a throw.

“The best thing we have had so far is our bullpen, and they didn’t get it done tonight,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Jenks wouldn’t talk after the game, but Logan said, “We’re not perfect. Bobby, no matter how good he is, isn’t going to have 100 percent every night. What happened, happened. Then I came in and they kept hitting, but the walks didn’t help.”

Nick Markakis homered for the Orioles, whose only lead in the series came when Millar crossed the plate. George Sherrill (1-0) pitched the 10th to earn the win.

Carlos Quentin hit two homers and Joe Crede also connected for Chicago, now 9-1 when leading after eight innings.

After the Orioles drew even with two unearned runs in the sixth, Quentin and Crede connected on successive pitches from Jeremy Guthrie to put Chicago up 4-2. Quentin’s homer ended a 3-for-25 skid, and Crede’s drive upped his RBI total to 18.

Quentin added a solo shot off Dennis Sarfate in the eighth. It was the second two-homer game of his career; the other came last May for Arizona against Colorado.

Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, who went to high school in Baltimore, pitched six innings of two-hit ball in a memorable homecoming. He struck out four, walked two and lowered his ERA to 1.40.

“It was fun pitching here. I grew up watching the Orioles, so to pitch here was special,” Floyd said.

In his last start, the right-hander held Detroit hitless through 7 1-3 innings. In this one, Floyd retired the first 12 batters before Millar bounced a single off the glove of Crede at third base.

That was Baltimore’s lone hit until Markakis homered with a man on in the sixth. Both runs were unearned, because the inning began with Luis Hernandez reaching on an error by first baseman Paul Konerko.

The Orioles’ third run was also tainted. After the 100-game errorless streak of White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski ended with an errant throw in the eighth, Scott hit an RBI double.

Pierzynski also went 0-for-5, snapping his bat over his knee after a foul out in the 10th.

Derrek Lee already has as many homers in the first month of this season as he did in the entire first half a year ago.

Lee’s early surge continued Wednesday night as he and Carlos Zambrano carried the Cubs to a 12-3 victory over slumping Cincinnati—the Reds’ fifth straight loss under former Chicago manager Dusty Baker.

Lee homered among his three hits and Zambrano also went 3-for-4 while pitching seven strong innings. The Cubs jumped out early with 10 runs by the third inning and made it easy for their ace.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella knows how much Zambrano enjoys hitting—he’s been used as a pinch-hitter occasionally—and had teased the big right-hander about his slow start, telling him he was a batting practice hitter.

“Lou was telling me, `When are you going to get a hit this year?”’ said Zambrano, who was 0-for-8 entering Wednesday’s game after batting .247 last season.

“I said, `I don’t know.’ I was hitting .000 before the game and now I’m hitting .250.”

Lee raised his average to .393 and after hitting only 22 homers last season, he’s already connected for six—the same number he had before the All-Star break a year ago.

“We got contributions throughout the lineup, especially our third hitter. He’s really in a nice groove,” Piniella said. “He’s zoned in. The ball just jumps off his bat.”

The Cubs scored four runs in the first and six in the third to give Zambrano an early cushion on another blustery night at Wrigley Field with the wind gusting out at 20 mph.

Zambrano (2-1) allowed eight hits and two runs. Chicago, meanwhile, hit Josh Fogg (1-2) hard. He gave up seven hits and was charged with nine runs in two-plus innings.

“When you give Big Z a 10-run lead by the third, you might catch up but your odds aren’t real good,” Baker said. “We didn’t get to use that wind out there. They hit us around the ballpark pretty good.”

Fogg said the wind was difficult but that’s not necessarily why he pitched so poorly.

“It’s a factor. For me today it wasn’t a very big factor because I didn’t pitch very well, so it didn’t matter,” he said. “Zambrano did a pretty good job pitching in it, so it’s not like it was impossible. You just have to make quality pitches and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Adam Dunn did homer for the Reds, off reliever Kevin Hart in the eighth. That’s when fans at Wrigley Field not only threw one ball back—as is a tradition after an opponent’s homer—they littered the field with 15 baseballs, momentarily halting play.

“I was surprised. I didn’t know that many people hit a home run today,” Cubs right fielder Kosuke Fukudome said through a translator.

Chicago didn’t miss leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano, who went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained right calf, an injury he sustained in the first inning of Tuesday night’s 9-5 win when he caught a fly ball.

Bases-loaded doubles by Fukudome in the first and Geovany Soto in the third were key hits Wednesday night. Zambrano had the third three-hit game of his career—two singles and a double—and an RBI.

Lee’s solo shot started the six-run third.

Fogg then loaded the bases for the second time in three innings as the Cubs had two walks and a single before Soto delivered a two-run double for a 7-1 lead. Reed Johnson greeted reliever Mike Lincoln with a sacrifice fly, Zambrano had an RBI single and a sixth run scored on a wild pitch.

In the first, Fogg gave up a double to Ryan Theriot and a single to Lee before hitting Aramis Ramirez with a pitch to load the bases. Fukudome doubled past first for a 2-0 lead and Mark DeRosa followed with another two-run double.

The Reds had a big inning working in the top of the second when Dunn walked with one out and Edwin Encarnacion blooped a single to left. Joey Votto then hit a high, wind-blown fly to left that DeRosa—playing in place of Soriano— misjudged. The ball hit the warning track and went for a ground-rule RBI double.

But with runners at second and third, Zambrano grabbed Javier Valentin’s hard comebacker and was able to catch Encarnacion off third. He was tagged out in a rundown. Cubs shortstop Theriot then saved another run by going behind second on a high bouncer by Fogg to throw him out and end the inning.

Jeff Keppinger doubled in a run in the seventh for the Reds.

The Tigers have the worst record in the major leagues, and Detroit manager Jim Leyland couldn’t contain himself anymore.

Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Leyland was heard screaming in the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside. He wouldn’t comment on the rant, but the manager said it wasn’t just about the loss.

“There was one thing that sticks out to me right now that’s going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Leyland said, without revealing the issue.

Joe Crede and Paul Konerko hit grand slams to back Javier Vazquez’s strong start. Konerko’s homer came in the third off Kenny Rogers and Crede’s grand slam, his second this season, came in the fifth against Zach Miner as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games over Detroit, the preseason favorite to win the AL Central.

“We got Detroit at the right time,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Those guys are going to wake up sooner or later. They have unbelievable talent.”

Chicago has a 5 1/2 -game lead in the division over the Tigers. The White Sox have outscored Detroit 46-12 this season, despite the Tigers adding slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera to an already powerful lineup.

“Where we’re at makes sense because that’s the way we’ve played,” Leyland said. “It’s not surprising that we’re 2-10. We’ve been shut out four times. … I didn’t think we’d get shut out four times all year, to be honest with you.”

Detroit has been shutout out twice as many time as any other major league team—one more time than they were blanked all of last year.

“We’re just in a funk,” Leyland said. “Can I get them out of the funk? No, I don’t think so. They have to get themselves out of it.”

It was the third time the White Sox have hit two grand slams in one game. The previous time Chicago did it was May 19, 1996, when Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura homered at Detroit. The first time was Sept. 4, 1995, when Ventura hit two grand slams in a game at Texas.

“It was kind of wild,” Konerko said. “You don’t see many grand slams, and especially with the weather. The weather was kind of brutal out there.”

On a cold and windy day, Rogers (0-3) gave up seven runs, seven hits and four walks in four-plus innings. He once again pitched with no run support; the Tigers haven’t scored a run in his three starts this season. Not that he helped much.

“We’re not a very good team right now,” Rogers said. “We’re as bad a team as there is right now in every facet, myself as much as anyone. I’m supposed to be consistent and I was very uncomfortable out there and inconsistent.”

Chicago has started to erase the bad taste from last season with its strong start, and Crede is part of the reason why. The third baseman is hitting .341 with four homers and 15 RBIs, with most of his production coming in the last week. He had to work himself into shape in spring training after missing much of last season with back surgery.

“He’s Joe,” Guillen said. “We’re lucky enough to have Joe back. Last year we missed him a lot. We missed his bat and his glove. You see his RBIs, but he also had RBIs in the field, saving runs with his defense.”

Vazquez (2-1) won his second straight start, scattering five hits in seven innings while striking out nine without a walk.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Rogers walked Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single. Jim Thome walked and Konerko took an 0-1 fastball to center for a 405-foot homer, his first grand slam since Aug. 3, 2004, and the seventh of his career.

“It’s a credit to the guys in front of us that were getting on base,” Konerko said. “In my case, Orlando hustled down the line, drawing a bad throw to get on base and then Jimmy has a heck of an at-bat and draws a walk. It’s all those little things where it didn’t look like it was going anywhere and then, bang, grand slam.”

Rogers didn’t make it out of the fifth, getting pulled for Miner after Cabrera’s double and Thome’s bloop single. Konerko struck out, Jermaine Dye hit an RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked. Thome scored on a wild pitch and Miner walked Carlos Quentin to set up Crede’s sixth grand slam, a 393-foot shot to left.

Crede had hit two grand slams in a season once before.

“High school, senior year,” he said of his days at Fatima High School in Westphalia, Mo. “I can’t recall a time since A-ball that I’ve started out feeling this good, this early.”

Not so for the Tigers. On Thome’s single in the fifth, Cabrera tripped on the third base umpire’s foot and missed a chance for an easy catch.

“That tells you how bad it’s been going for us,” Leyland said. “He stepped on the umpire’s foot and slipped.”

After needing the equivalent of three games merely to win twice in Pittsburgh, what a relief this regulation game was to the Chicago Cubs. Almost as big as the relief Jon Lieber gave them.

Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit two-run homers in Chicago’s five-run sixth inning and the Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, winning 7-3 Thursday night to run their winning streak to five games.

Soto had three extra-base hits, including two doubles, among his second career four-hit game, and Derrek Lee also drove in two runs despite not getting a hit as the Cubs won their sixth in a row over the Pirates dating to last season.

Lieber (2-1) got the decision by pitching 4 1-3 scoreless relief innings after starter Rich Hill needed 72 pitches to get through three innings, allowing three runs and three hits and walking four. Lieber pitched 7 1-3 scoreless relief innings in the series, three of them during a 10-8, 12-inning win Monday in the Pirates’ home opener.

“Without Lieber, we really would have had problems,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We were looking for innings. … (Hill) was all over the place. There was no use keeping him in there. It wasn’t going to get any better.”

The Cubs certainly didn’t need to look for innings earlier in the series.

After going 12 and 15 innings to win the first two games—the first time in 81 years they’ve needed that many innings to win consecutive road games—the Cubs won this with one big inning against the pitching-thin Pirates, who dropped their fifth in six games.

“I’m glad it didn’t go (extra innings),” said Soto, who went 8-of-17 while catching all 36 innings in the series—apparently with no effect on his offense.

The Cubs withstood two Pirates homer-driven comebacks to win 6-4 in 15 innings on Wednesday night.

“I think any situation like that, if anybody can go in there and do that, it’s definitely huge,” Lieber, a converted starter, said of propping up the bullpen. “You want to give those guys a break down there, especially after last night’s ballgame.”

Soto had a chance to hit for the cycle, but he didn’t think of trying to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh. He grounded out in the ninth.

“I already hit my one (triple) for the year. I’ll take them if they come, but I don’t want to get greedy,” Soto said. “I’m not a triple-type guy.”

After emptying their bullpen in consecutive games, the Pirates needed a lot of innings from starter Matt Morris (0-1), who lasted seven but gave up 11 hits and seven runs, four earned.

“I tried to avoid thinking about that all day—the obvious thing is (to think), ‘I’ve got to go 8, I’ve got to go 9, I’ve got to go 7, whatever it is,’ and as soon as you start thinking like that, you can barely get out of the first,” Morris said.

Morris led 3-2 going into the sixth, but quickly fell behind when Kosuke Fukudome walked and Soto followed with a drive into the center field shrubbery for his second homer.

“I had the game in front of me but, all of a sudden, the home run just changed everything and it snowballed,” Morris said.

Morris might have gotten out of the inning with only two runs scoring, but Ryan Theriot, who had singled, was safe at third on a steal attempt when third baseman Jose Bautista dropped Ronny Paulino’s throw that arrived well ahead of the runner.

Theriot scored on Reed Johnson’s single, and Fontenot made it 7-3 with a two-run, two-out drive into the right field seats, the third homer off Morris in two starts.

Prior to Wednesday’s game with the Twins, Ozzie Guillen was asked about umpire Phil Cuzzi and the fact that he’s been responsible for Guillen’s last two ejections. As usual, the White Sox manager pulled no punches.

“I don’t like that guy behind the plate,” Guillen said. “And I’m going to let him know. I don’t like him. He don’t like me, I don’t like him. It’s one reason is, if you don’t like me as a man and what I do, I respect that. But if you don’t like me, and all of a sudden you’re going to take it out on my players, you’re wrong. That’s unprofessional.

“And I just let him know I don’t like him the first day I see him, and I think he feels the same way about me. And we have to move on. Every time he’s behind the plate, we might have a problem. We might. We have. I think the last couple times behind the plate, we have a problem. And he tried to be smart with me, and I do what I have to do, and he does what he has to do. But I don’t like him, and he don’t like me. And I got a good sleep last night. I will spend all my money for him. I don’t care. But obviously, we don’t like each other.”