Coming into today's game, the White Sox had the best-rated bullpen in the American league.

They proved that today, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings in the White Sox's 6-5 win over the Cubs, their second win over the North Siders in a row.

Javier Vazquez's June struggles continued, but Boone Logan, Nick Masset, Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink, and Bobby Jenks picked up the White Sox after Vazquez lasted just 4.1 innings.

Vazquez gave up five runs in his shortened outing—the fifth straight time he has allowed four or more runs in a start dating back to June 6.

The first four Cubs reached base in the top of the first and two runs scored before manager Ozzie Guillen came out to talk to Vazquez. After the mound conference, Vazquez retired Aramis Ramirez, Jim Edmonds, and Geovany Soto in a row to end the inning.

The Sox came right back in the bottom of the inning when Jermaine Dye blasted his 18th home run of the season off a Sean Gallagher fastball. Jim Thome followed with a walk and was brought home when Cubs leftfielder Mark DeRosa misplayed a double off the wall by Joe Crede that put the Sox up 3-2.

That lead was extended to 4-2 in the bottom of the second when Alexei Ramirez, who doubled earlier in the inning, was brought home on a double by Orlando Cabrera.

However, the Cubs were not going to go away easily, and came fighting back in the third and fourth innings.

The Cubs loaded the bases in the third on back-to-back singles and a two-out walk, putting Soto at the plate with a chance to tie the game with a base hit. Soto nailed a high slider from Vazquez, but Joe Crede made a spectacular leaping catch to his left to retire Soto and hold the Cubs at bay.

Vazquez didn't fair better in the fourth inning, though. A DeRosa single brought home the third run of the game for the Cubs and Lee blasted a two-run double to put the Cubs up 5-4.

That lead failed to last for the Cubs, however. On the second pitch of the bottom of the fourth inning, Ramirez nailed a curveball from Gallagher over the left-field fence for a game-tying solo home run.

With the score tied, Vazquez came out for the top of the fifth, but gave up a leadoff single to Edmonds. After striking out Soto, Guillen pulled Vazquez and turned the game over to the bullpen, which turned in a combined performance that was nothing short of spectacular.

Logan overpowered Mike Fontenot, striking him out for the second out of the inning. Ronny Cedeno then hit a double down the line to put men on second and third, but Logan struck out Kosuke Fukudome to squash the Cubs' threat.

Masset began the sixth, but gave up a one-out single to Lee, who went 5/5 on the day. Guillen went to Thornton, who promptly turned in maybe the most impressive outing of his three-year tenure with the White Sox.

Thornton blew away Daryle Ward and got Ramirez to fly out to Dye to end the inning. He was consistently hitting 95-97 mph with his fastball and was locating it with precision—a deadly combination for a pitcher. The Cubs had no chance against Thornton, who struck out Edmonds, Soto, and Fontenot in order to hold the Cubs scoreless in the top of the seventh.

Carlos Quentin delivered the big hit for the White Sox in the eighth when he pushed a solo home run out to right off Carlos Marmol to give the White Sox a 6-5 lead. It was Quentin's 18th of the season and first since June 18 against Pittsburgh.

Linebrink came in and only needed seven pitches to set the Cubs down in order in the top of the eighth. With another spectacular outing in the eighth inning, there could be a good push to get Linebrink to the All-Star Game in New York this July.

The ninth wasn't as easy for the White Sox as the last three innings were. Lee led off the inning by ripping a double to center and was moved to third on a groundout by Ward.

Ramirez stepped up to the plate, billed as the most "clutch" hitter on the Cubs.

All Ramirez did was ground out softly to a drawn-in Cabrera. Lee was unable to score on the play and was the seventh man Ramirez stranded on base in today's game.

Jenks got Edmonds to ground out to second to end the ballgame and nail down what was one of the most spectacular bullpen performances the White Sox have had since 2005.

As a group, to go 4.2 innings without allowing a run to an offense as good as the Cubs is impressive. When you add in that the score was tied through 2.2 of those innings and the Sox had a one-run lead through the other 2.0 innings, that makes it even more impressive. When you add in that it was the Crosstown Series with 39,143 amped up fans in the stands, that makes it even more impressive.

Mark Buehrle will go against Sean Marshall tomorrow night at 7:05 to cap off the series. Buehrle has been the opposite of Vazquez as of late, as he is on a streak of five straight starts without allowing more than three earned runs.