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Sox' Sweeping Statement
The Chicago White Sox celebrate their first World Series since 1917. An RBI single by Jermaine Dye in the top of the eighth inning provides all the White Sox need to win Game 4 and complete the sweep. (Amy Sancetta - AP)
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But in uncanny fashion, the White Sox seemed to turn each of those breaks into another hit, another run, another win.
The White Sox's big break Wednesday night came when Astros Manager Phil Garner lifted Backe after the seventh inning in favor of pinch hitter Jeff Bagwell, whose bum shoulder prevents him from playing the field and who probably would not have been on the Astros' roster were he not the face of the franchise.
"I didn't want to do it," Garner said of the decision to lift Backe, "but you've got to try to put a run on the board."
Bagwell grounded out weakly to second to end the inning, and into the game came Lidge, still bearing the scars from the traumatic home runs that cost the Astros Game 5 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series.
Harris, pinch-hitting for Garcia, led off the eighth by lining a single to left. He was sacrificed to second, and moved to third on a ground out. On a 1-1 count, Lidge threw a slider over the middle of the plate, and Dye, shortening his swing to maximize his contact, poked a single up the middle. Harris crossed the plate as the stadium grew silent.
"Decent breaking ball," Lidge said. "It found a hole."
One night after the Astros suffered a devastating, 14-inning loss in Game 3 -- the longest game in World Series history, and for the Astros, the most awful -- everyone still showed up at Minute Maid Park, and the players scratched and clawed, and the fans rose to their feet and roared from time to time. But their hearts weren't in it anymore.
That the Astros would go down so meekly -- they were 0 for 20 with runners in scoring position going back to Tuesday night's fourth inning -- was a surprise to anyone who saw them vanquish the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, or who felt the pride that swelled within the stadium during the first World Series games ever in the state of Texas.
But that team in the other dugout, the White Sox, they were charmed, and they were good. So good, neither the Astros nor history itself could have had any idea what they were up against.
