Black Sox Blog

For the fourth straight game, and the fourth straight win, a White Sox starter has gone the distance. It’s been almost a week since the Sox used a reliever.

Jose Contreras gave up three runs on only five hits. The White Sox got on the board first with a sac. fly by Joe Crede in the second inning but the Angels matched that with a run in the third. The Sox then took the lead back on a Jermaine Dye double in the fifth, only to yield the lead to the Angels in the bottom half of the inning.
Joe Crede was the man. He hit a solo shot in the seventh to tie the game up, then he drove in a run in the eighth to give the Sox the lead for good. The White Sox got two insurance runs in the ninth that eventually weren’t needed.

The Astros are up 3-1, so they’re our likely opponent. If that’s the case, we should see some great pitching.

The White Sox are four wins away from winning their first World Series since 1917. Go Sox!!

The White Sox are up 3-1 and they have a chance to win the series without even having to come home to play in Chicago. Freddy Garcia was the third straight starter to shut down the Indians as he went the distance. He gave up only two runs on six hits with one walks.

Once again, the White Sox got all they needed in the first inning. A repeat of yesterday, Paul Konerko hit a three run homerun to give the White Sox a nice cushion before the Angels even picked up a bat. Joe Crede and Carl Everett both had two hits and two RBIs.

Tomorrow it’s a repeat of game one. Jose Contreras takes the mound against Paul Byrd. Hopefully the end result will be different and the White Sox can lock up a chance to play in their first World Series since 1959.

Who needs a bullpen. Jon Garland, like Mark Buehrle in game two, went the distance. 83 of his 118 pitches were for strikes as he gave up only four hits and one walk while striking out seven.

Paul Konerko came up huge as well. Three for four with a homerun, and three of the White Sox five runs were driven in by him. Tad Iguchi made the most of his two times on base and scored both times. They didn’t even try to steal a base, but it might have been because they jumped out to an early lead.

The White Sox have a chance to leave Anaheim with a 3-1 lead. Freddy Garcia throws against the rookie Ervin Santana. And if Garcia falters, we have a nice rested bullpen.

This is how they White Sox have won all season. Ride your starting pitcher, then pick up some runs here and there. They led the league with 35 one run wins this season, and it’s nice to see their continuing to pull these games out.

Mark Buehrle was spectacular. Nine innings, five hits, now walks and four strikeouts. The game finished in a typical fashion for one his starts. Two hours and 34 minutes for a playoff game is unheard of these days. His sole blemish was a fifth inning, game tying, solo homerun by Rob Quinlan.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the ninth. A.J. Pierzynski, one of my goats in game one, struck out but on a weird play, catcher Josh Paul sort of fumbled the low pitch. The Angels ran off the field, Pierzynski ran to first base, and the umpire called him safe. Pablo Ozuna pinch ran, stole second, and a guy who’s angling himself for the MVP of the series, Joe Crede, drove him home with a walk off double. Crede is hitting .375 in the two games and has two RBIs.

I touched on this yesterday, but the use of K-Rod on Tuesday (he also pitched on Monday) meant we were facing Kelvim Escobar in the ninth and not K-Rod. Things might have been very different had we not forced him to pitch Tuesday night. Now we get a day off and play tomorrow in Anaheim. Jon Garland throws against John Lackey.

Ozzie Guillen did everything he needed to do to sweep the Red Sox. Whether it was right or not, it worked. Yesterday’s game was disappointing for the reason that we ran ourselves out of some potential rallies. The Angels got to Contreras early and that’s where the mistakes began.

Mistake number one came in the fifth inning. Scott Podsednik drew a one out walk and he got gunned down by Molina. Benji Molina is a gold glove catcher, and Podsednik had a horrible second half stealing bases. Yes, we were down by a run, but the Sox not only took a guy off the bases, they created an out they couldn’t afford. It’s the third time Podsednik has been caught stealing in the post season.

Not learning from that mistake, it happened again in the seventh. I had the game on and was only listening so I didn’t see it, but I have no idea why A.J. Pierzynski was running. Joe Crede had hit a homerun earlier in the game. It’s just frustrating when they give up not only baserunners, but outs. Sigh.

The good news is, we go to their pen. Scott Shields three two innings and K-Rod threw one. Hopefully that comes into play tonight. I hate to say it’s a must win game, but this is big. We can’t go down 2-0 and expect to be able to storm back when we don’t have the bats.

The LA Angels of Anaheim took care of the Yankees. Now they have to swing back to the midwest where they’ll face a rested and ready Chicago White Sox. Jose Contreras takes the mound against Paul Byrd, and we could play three games before the Angels can even bring in their ace, Bartolo Colon. And that’s only if he’s ready to play, because he left in the first inning last night.

In short, things have really stacked up well for the White Sox. Colon is out, and we have a team that just made a plane ride to CA, and now they have to turn around, hop on another plane and come to Chicago. Home field advantage could end up really helping us out.