(See previous entries for the beginning of the story)
Personally, I really could have cared less who the White Sox played first. Each of the AL teams was a good team. And the White Sox were not particularly successful against any one of them (The Yankees, Red Sox, or Angels) during the regular season. One thing they had going in their favor though – Home field advantage throughout. Hey, when it comes to the playoffs, you have to take when you can get.
When they drew the Red Sox as their first opponent, you kept thinking “slugfest”. Their offense had beat us up all year, just as they had done to every other team they had played. But the old adage crept back into my vocabulary. “Pitching wins pennants”. “Good pitching ALWAYS beats good hitting”. If that holds true, then the White Sox should win, right? It’s tough to be an optimist when you’ve witnessed 3 playoffs game wins in your lifetime. Not to mention 0 playoff series victories and 0 World Series appearances. But hey, I was enjoying this for what it was worth.
Game one was the early game. So, being out on the west coast, the game started just after 1:00 in the afternoon. I conveniently took a late lunch, walked over to the local Chili’s and ate by myself in the bar. I figured I could catch 2 or 3 innings. After a 5 run shellacking off of Clement in the first inning, that’s all the time I had and I headed back to work. I listened to the remainder of the game on my portable CD player at work (yes, I still have a CD player). After a 14-2 walloping of the Red Sox, I was feeling good. But I also realized it was only one win. And that the Red Sox’ best pitchers were yet to come.
Game 2 was the match up between mentor and student. The two lefties. The ancient David Wells against Mark Buehrle. Except that Mark Buehrle wasn’t his usual sharp self. We’re not accustomed to him giving up 4 runs. But against this Boston team, 4 runs were good enough to keep us in the game. So began the theme of the 2005 playoffs. Take advantage of the little things. Ex-White Sox infielder, Tony Graffanino, allowed a routine, inning-ending, ground ball to go between his legs. Tadahito Iguchi stepped in the box and was waiting for the David Wells quick, slide-step curveball. The rookie put a charge into the pitch and capped a 5-run 5th inning with his 3 run blast. Taking advantage of these opportunities defined this team in the playoffs.
The good news – The White Sox were actually up 2-0 on the reigning world champions. The bad news – They had to go to Boston. And they haven’t been scrappy White Sox baseball. They were back to their old 2004 selves – The team that relied on big innings and home runs. They couldn’t possibly get real far in the playoffs swinging for the fences. Could they?
As with Game 1, I took a late lunch at Chili’s and watched the beginning of the game. This time, though, there were no fireworks and no excitement early. When I returned to work, I turned on my trusty Sony Discman. With the score 4-3 in the 7th inning, ESPN radio broke to the Angels / Yankees pre-game in New York. The announcer sounded something like this, “Welcome to Yankee Stadium where it has been raining all day and the tarp is still on the field.” Wait, you broke away from a 1-run game in the 7th inning for this? This better be quick. He continued, “For those of you joining us from the White Sox / Red Sox game in Boston, we’ll continue to give you periodic updates on the game.” What!? You’re not going back?!?! I think the words I muttered to myself at work were, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” The Angels game wasn’t even set to start for another 45 minutes, regardless of the weather. Yet, I had to sit and listen to asinine interviews with Mr. Personality himself, Garrett Anderson, while they announced, “Wouldn’t you know it. Murphy’s law at work. Just as they get the tarp off the field, it starts raining again.” At which point I threw my headphones against the wall and watched the remained of Game 3 on MLB’s GameCast, cheering probably 2 minutes after each pitch actually happened. I quickly got over my anger at ESPN radio when it hit me. They won a playoff series. For the first time in my life, they won a playoff series. They won it against the reigning champs. And they won it in convincing fashion – it was a sweep. Wow.
Looking back, they won the series with pitching. They allowed 2 runs, 4 runs and 3 runs against the top run scoring offense in the league. The White Sox were built around pitching and defense. And that’s exactly how they won the series.
--- To be continued ---
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