Game One

By Matt Wall

White Sox Take Opener 5-3

Pale Hose Pen Hot

Stros Sag

So much for small ball.

The White Sox scored five runs in Saturday's Game One of the World Series on a couple of homers, a double, a triple, and a ground out. Their only sacrifice of the evening put a bump in the middle of a rally that ended up producing nothing. The Astros got a sacrifice in to push runners to second and third, who scored on a Lance Berkman double and who would've scored anyway without the sacrifice. The little game took a back seat to some big bats and some bigger-time relief pitching as the home team took the series lead with a 5-3 victory.

The Sox struck early against Roger Clemens, who left after two innings with an apparent leg injury and after having surrendered three runs. The Rocket's booster stage seemed to be fizzling, and the cold night and those 43-year-old muscles did not apparently mix into the kind of nitrous combustion necessary to blow ballistic missiles by the home team nine. The runs scored on a solo shot by Jermaine Dye in the first and a two-out double by Juan Uribe in the second, and before we could say "future Hall of Famer" Clemens was limping off the field.

The Houston bullpen took over early with one Wandy Rodriguez toeing the rubber from the third inning into the sixth. Rodriguez did quite a credible job on short notice, giving up only one run on a Joe Crede solo shot in the fourth. He pitched well under pressure, ending rallies in the fourth and fifth on ground ball double plays, the latter of which featured Rodriguez himself covering the bag and making a good stretch on the return end of a three-six-one play. Chad Qualls succeeded him and made quick work of the Sox in an inning and two thirds. Unfortunately for the 'Stros, Russ Springer did not quite match his pen mates' performances, giving up an untimely two-out triple to Scott Podsednik to score the ubiquitous Anthony James Pierzynski for that all-important insurance run.

In contrast to Clemens, Jose Contreras, starting for the White Sox, was nearly as good as advertised. He gave up a solo shot in the second and the Berkman two-run double in the third, at which point the game was tied, but after that settled down and lasted through one batter in the eighth without giving up additional damage. His only tricky spot was after he'd hit two batters in the seventh. A pop out and a ground out brought Craig Biggio to the plate with a runner at third, but the veteran second-sacker, perhaps a bit too anxious after a 19-year wait to play in his first World Series game, offered at the first Contreras pitch and was sawn off, resulting in a ground out to short.

Contreras gave up a double to start the eighth to Rookie of the Year candidate Willie Taveras, and then the much-rested Sox pen was brought to bear on the situation. Ozzie Guillen called for set-up man Neal Cotts, who hadn't been heard from since the team bus left for Logan Airport two weeks ago. Cotts let the dangerous Lance Berkman single sharply to left, but it was a bit too sharply hit to send the speedster Taveras home with nobody out. It was perhaps a pyrrhic victory for Berkman, as having been forced to go to the shallow outfield, his danger had been minimized. Cotts responded by ramping up the fast ball and getting both Morgan Ensberg and Mike Lamb swinging.

At that point, manager Ozzie Guillen called for his rookie closer, Bobby Jenks, by making monstrous gestures towards the bullpen, as if to indicated he wanted the big guy. Jenks had just claimed the stopper's role in the second half of September following an injury to Dustin Hermanson, but with a piece of cheese that travels 100 mile per hour in your pocket, experience takes a back seat to stuff.

With Chris Burke running for Berkman (and advancing to second on a steal during the ultimate at-bat of the inning), a single of any sort would likely have put the Astros in the lead. At the plate was the once-mighty Jeff Bagwell. Here the sentimentality of the Astros in sticking with Bagpipes on the World Series roster, and starting him as DH, may well have cost them the game. Bagwell no longer has the fearsome bat speed he once had, and while he has all the guile and gumption of the experienced veteran, chutzpah and savoir faire do not match up well against 100 MPH pills.

Jenks, for his part, tossed a couple of fat eggs down the middle of the plate, but they were fast fat eggs, and Bagwell couldn't get them into his basket. Jenks also did his occasional imitation of Nuke LaLoosh, and both of the two high balls he threw to Bagwell looked like they might themselves reach escape velocity and soar to the backstop to allow the tying run to come in from third. But Pierzynski swiped the errant tosses and, at the cost of allowing Burke to advance to second base on a steal, kept the balls in check and the runner that counted safely at third. Jenks tossed another 99-miler towards the outside part of the zone, allowing Bagwell just enough oil in his swinging gate to make contact for a meek foul. That was enough toying around, though: Jenks just rolled another 101-mph bowling ball right down the alley, and Bagwell swung through it for strike three. If you're keeping score at home, that's Killer Bees, oh-for-two in game-saving situations, and quite a lot of buzz from the Sox' exterminators.

At that, the ninth inning was a bit of an anti-climax after the White Sox had tacked on their insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, albeit an anti-climax with an excalamation point. Jenks struck out Jason Lane on three pitches, got Brad Ausmus to tap a weak roller to short after looking at strike one, and then struck out Adam Everett on three pitches for the White Sox' first World Series game victory since their 1-0 win behind the immortal Bob Shaw over the emerging Sandy Koufax on October 6, 1959.

Tomorrow night's matchup will have Andy Pettite taking the orb for the visitors, and Mark Buehrle toeing up for the home team. With the White Sox whuppin' sticks out at full power on a cold night, and their bullpen hotter than Hades, it will take a chilling performance from the Baton Rouge bat-breaker to stop the Sox from taking a two games to naught advantage in the best of seven series.