Good World Series So Far

I swear this is the same thing I would have written even if I hadn't seen the results of game one and two.

I want the White Sox to win. But I want Andy Pettitte to perform well and I want to see Roger Clemens let his teammates down again with a poor performance, cementing his reputation as overrated, despite the Cy Youngs (he so often comes up short in playoff games!) I was hoping the Astros could have won the game for Pettitte, but at least he didn't wear the albatross last night.

Now, given what I've seen, I think the Astros will win one behind Oswalt, but then lose the next two when Backe and Clemens or whoever replaces him return to the hill.

Last night's game was one of the best in recent memory. An instant classic, thrilling in every way. Timely hitting, big power, shameless comebacks, and a controversial call and all. I'll tell you what. Whether or not Jermain Dye got hit doesn’t even matter. There’s no excuse for grooving that fastball to Konerko with the bases loaded. That ball got out of there faster than it came in.

Then Vizcaino coming through in the clutch again, shades of the 2000 World Series, how exciting is that, and the play at the plate and he should have been sooo out.

Lidge is done. He has Mark Wohlers written all over him. I said this at the time, I swear, though I didn’t write it, how could Phil Garner not bring him to close out the NLCS. If the score was 10-1, you bring in your closer, just so he can be the guy on the mound when you clinch, so he can celebrate on the field. But he brings in Dan Wheeler? Who the $%^*$* is Dan Wheeler? Oh yeah, he’s the guy who loads the bases so Chad Qualls can groove a fastball that costs you game two.

Now Garner brings Lidge back in an equally stupid situation: He can’t win, he can only lose. Boom! Podsednik (Podsednik?! ! If he hits it out, that means I can hit it out.) One of the biggest home runs in World Series History. Who lives that down? Eckersley? OK. Rivera? Sure. But Trevor Hoffman? Nope. Armando Benitez? Nuh-uh. Billy Wagner—we’ll see, if he ever gets back to the postseason. Kim is more like it, though Lidge has been better than Kim ever was.

Meanwhile, I love the White Sox. They play great baseball. They bunt, they advance runners, they make productive outs, and then when you’re exhausted from trying to make sure they don’t pester you to death, they bonk you over the head with doubles, triples, and bombs. That’s the kind of baseball the 1996-2000 Yankees played, and they won all the time. You can’t lose playing that kind of baseball, if you have the kind of talent they have. Good hungry young players who field the ball well, a few veterans (good on whoever turned Carl Everett into a good citizen). And fantastic pitching.

The secret of the White Sox is one that needs to be told throughout the league: good starting pitching, used deep into game, makes your bullpen better because they don’t have to work that often. The Sox starting five averaged better than seven innings per start. That’s an amazing stat in a LaRussified era in which starters are lucky to go seven these days. But starters who go deep into ballgames keep the bullpen fresh. The stats of Buehrle, Garland, Contreras, Garcia, and Duque aren’t that impressive individually. But collectively (they all had 18 or more decisions , and, except for Duque, had ERAs under 4) they add up to a winning formula.

If I were a GM, I’d start looking more at innings pitched to see if there are some sleeper pitchers in the offseason. He may not be the guy who blows em away every fifth day, but he could be the guy that prevents your bullpen from having to come in and makes sure a 4-2 lead doesn’t become a 6-4 deficit in a big hurry.

In the old days, the guys in the bullpen were there because they weren’t as good as the starters. With the possible exception of the closer, it’s still true today.