Winning Ways for Cubs, White Sox, Bulls

The good news for the Chicago Cubs: They defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 Friday night at Busch Stadium on Welington Castillo’s three-run home run in the 11th inning. The not-so-good news: Jose Veras, who blew a 3-1 ninth-inning lead, apparently will remain the Cubs closer.

For those who care (and even if you don’t), there is video below of model Kate Bock.

* More good news for the Cubs: Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal, who struck out to end the 10th inning with the winning run on second base, likely will not be available for Saturday’s game after throwing 22 pitches. The same goes for Veras, who threw 27 pitches.

* And furthermore: Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija threw seven innings, allowed one run, struck out four and walked none. Meaning his trade value remains relatively high this early in the season.

* The good news for the White Sox: Staff ace Chris Sale improved to 3-0 in a 9-6 victory against the Cleveland Indians at U.S. Cellular Field. The not-so-good news: Sale lasted only five innings and 105 pitches.

* More good news for the Sox: Conor Gillaspie had a career-high four runs batted in that doubled his season total (meaning he now has eight — in case you are mathematically challenged, as some of us are; then again, baseball is how some of us learned what little arithmetic we do).

* And furthermore: The Sox, who were 2-17 against Cleveland in 2013, are 2-0 against the Indians in 2014. Which the statistical-analysis department around here has determined (after spending numerous hours calculating) means the Sox likely will do better than last season.

* Ex-Cub of the day: San Diego pitcher Andrew Cashner threw a one-hitter to beat the visiting Detroit Tigers 6-0. It was the first complete game this season. By any big-league pitcher. Cashner, who struck out a career-high 11, was part of the trade that brought the Cubs Anthony Rizzo. In case anyone wants to wonder about the wonderfulness (that’s a word, right?) of the Theo Epstein regime.

* The good news for the Bulls: They did defeat Detroit 106-98 at the United Center. The not-so-good news: The Bulls trailed the Pistons 56-38 at the half.

* More good news for the Bulls: They clinched homecourt advantage for their first-round playoff game.

* And furthermore: Bulls center Joakim Noah had 10 assists to give him 408 for the season. He is the ninth player in NBA history with at least 400 assists and 100 blocks in a season. The others: Kevin Garnett (six times), Sam Lacey (three times), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (twice), Alex English, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Alvan Adams and Dwyane Wade.

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