Chicago White Sox A.J. Pierzynski is congratulated at home plate by Carl Everett (L) and Aaron Rowand after hitting a three-run home run against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning of their American League Divisional Series
Forty six years is a very long time to go without a home playoff win for most baseball franchises. But given the fact that no Chicago team has won a World Series since 1917, the concept of time for White Sox fans has become a relative thing. We here in the Windy City do not measure our sports disappointments using such archaic and unenlightening concepts like linear time. Rather, the bio-rhythms of the cicada – who return every 7 years – is a more appropriate notion. Hence, when viewing the dearth of playoff successes for the Pale Hose, it sounds much better and is actually more accurate to state that it has been approximately 6 1/2 cicadian life cycles since the White Sox managed a home playoff triumph.
Doesn’t sound quite so bad when put that way, huh?
That said, it is hard to overestimate how sweet the White Sox 14-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox was for Chicagoans. We are so used to seeing our players tie themselves into Gordian knots of apprehension, giving into the pressure at playoff time that to see how loosey-goosey the Chisox were from the get go has allowed a small measure of hope to creep into our settled and fatalistic approach to gaging our chances of ultimate success during baseball’s mean season.
It was the World Champion Boston club who looked like bushers. Red Sox starting pitcher Matt Clement (an ex-cub…’nuff said) had a perplexed look frozen on his face for the entire time he was on the mound. It was almost as if he didn’t quite know where the ball was going to end up once it left his hand. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much the case. Clement plunked two of the first three batters he faced and then watched helplessly as White Sox scored two runs by getting only two hits – a liner to right by Carl Everett, and centerfielder Aaron Rowand’s soft single over the head of shortstop Edgar Renteria, a ball not hit hard enough to dent a Rosatti’s Chicago style pizza box.
Still, Clement could have gotten out of that first inning with only the minimal damage of two runs but for Chisox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Now A.J. has been in a power slump, having last hit a home run about the time that the aforementioned cicadas were emerging from their 7 year slumber. Well…perhaps not quite that long. At any rate, the White Sox backstop sent one of Clement’s perplexed deliveries on a line to the opposite field and into the seats for a three run homer. The crowd went wild, the home team dugout erupted, and Clement? Clement cast his eyes skyward apparently seeking help from some of the same baseball gods that intervened last year to give the Bosox a World Series title.
But those whom the gods destroy they first drive mad and then laugh uproariously at the looks on their victim’s faces. The whiskers that grace Clement’s chin seemed to turn several shades grayer and by the time Red Sox manager Terry Francona pulled the hapless hurler in the 4th inning following a two-run blast by White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe, Clement looked like Odysseus after being pummeled by Poseidon’s wrathful storms – a broken shell of a man, tattered and torn by the South Sider’s onslaught.
The slaughter was on and there was nothing the Chowderheads could do to stop it. Before he exited the game, Clements gifted White Sox slugger Paul Konerko with a solo homer before giving up Uribe’s towering drive into the left field seats. He was replaced by former White Sox reliever Chad Bradford whose underhanded delivery turned the tables and perplexed the Chisox hitters for an inning. Alas, for Red Sox fans, their relief was shortlived. Bradford is a set-up man out of the bullpen and not intended to pitch to more than a few batters.
The submariner then gave way to Jeremi Gonzalez who came in and promptly threw a home run ball to a man who had 507 at bats during the regular season without a single round tripper. To say that Scott Podsednik’s 3-run tater was unexpected is like saying Federal prosecutors found no corruption in Mayor Daley’s city hall; it’s something you just can’t believe unless you see it with your own eyes. No one looked more suprised than Podsednik who didn’t quite know how to behave when circling the bases. Instead of the stately, majestic home run trot of your typical power hitter, Scotty scooted around the bases so fast it appeared he believed someone was playing a huge practical joke on him and he better get a move on before they changed their minds.
Topping off the day was a second homer by Pierzynski, this time off Bronson Arroyo, another Boston lamb led to the slaughter. The tally for the Red Sox bullpen was 6 runs on 4 hits over 4 2/3 innings for an Earned Run Average of about 12 runs per 9 innings. Not an auspicious beginning for a crew that is being counted on to relieve Boston’s aging and inconsistent starters.
On the other side of the coin, White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras pitched well, if not spectacularly. All the early runs simplified Mr. Contreras task immensely. All he had to do was throw strikes and allow the over-anxious Red Sox hitters to get themselves out. The vaunted Bosox offense could manage only two runs against the slants of 3 White Sox pitchers with the dynamic duo of Ortiz and Ramirez going a combined 2 for 8 – Ortiz getting both hits – and both men leaving a combined 5 players in scoring position. Best not to gloat where those two are concerned as they are just as likely to knock the ball all over the yard for the rest of the series. But for this game, they were as quiet as mice in Boston’s North Church.
Most baseball people expect the Red Sox to rebound following this humiliating defeat and I see no reason why this should not be so. They are professionals who realize that this game was a fluke and probably not indicative of the way the rest of the series will play out. The one intangible is that a great weight has been lifted from the White Sox shoulders which will allow them to relax a little. It has also given the club some confidence, two elements that can translate into winning baseball for the duration of the series.
We’ll see. In the meantime, playoff warrior David Wells takes the mound for the Red Sox tonight. He’ll be opposed by playoff rookie Mark Buehrle, a pitcher who threw well the last few weeks of the season. Will the canny veteran Wells be able to stifle the Chicagoans and give his potent offense a chance to get it into gear?
My guess is that it will be a high scoring game decided in the late innings. And in a bullpen vs. bullpen match-up, I like the chances of my White Sox.
UPDATE
The Baseball Crank predicts my beloveds to win the Bosox series but then inexplicably gives the hated Yankees the nod in his expected ALCS - in a sweep no less.
The ridiculousness of that notion is so profound as to call into question Mr. Crank’s sanity. With their aging, injured, patchwork pitching staff, it’s problematic whether the Bronx Bums will be able to get by the Angels much less sweep a team with a pitching staff as deep and talented as the White Sox. Methinks I detect a whiff of Yankee Kool aid on the breath of the Crank…best mix it with a few grains of salt.
And Pauli at The Commons bemoans Clements ineffectiveness in the second half of the season. This is all part of the “Ex-Cub Factor” that I will write about tomorrow.
1:58 pm
The Nut House questions my sanity! Oh, the irony!
I yield to no one in hating the Yankees, but predictions of their demise are too often premature. As long as Rivera stays fresh, they will not lose to the White Sox.
7:00 am
I hope the Red Sox come back and sweep these clowns.. I would rather listen to Michael Moore wax politica with Al Franken for an hour than read your chicago fanboy crap…
Eat dirt!!
7:03 am
I don’t think I’ve ever had someone named “Gus” visit my site before. What is that short for? Gussy? As in “You can gussy up a pig in a dress but when all is said and done, it’s still a pig?”
Just wondering…
7:20 am
I think the “A” in “Moran” should be another “O”.. I actually thought you were smart and had something worthwhile to say until a pre-school name ploy was the best comeback you could come up with.. (mine was much better… Dick Moron)
So sad..
7:24 am
“Chicago fanboy crap” is much better?
Think a lot of yourself dontchya? And the last time someone called me “moron” was a little girl in third grade.
I can’t decide whether you are smarter than a 9 year old or whether you just have the intellectual acumen of one.
7:32 am
I think my name ploy was at LEAST the junior high level!
Did that little girl break your heart Dick?
Stick to writing scathing articles criticizing the liberal left and I will be happy.. Everyone hates the Chicago White Sox worse than Hillary Clinton! Maybe the White Sox will get together again if you do miraculously beat the Red Sox and throw the game again like they did to ya last time they were there..
11:00 am
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3:03 pm
I know this is old, but Palm Springs is in California, not Florida. Trust me, with all the murderers and child predators in Florida, the Gods would not hang out there.