October 16, 2005: José Contreras fires Chicago’s fourth straight complete game to send White Sox to World Series

On July 1, 2005, Chicago White Sox starter José Contreras took the loss at Oakland Coliseum after allowing four runs in 4 1/3 innings. But even with a 3-5 record and a 4.34 ERA, manager Ozzie Guillén saw little reason to worry about the 33-year-old Cuban defector who joined his club through a midseason trade with the New York Yankees a year earlier.1

“… [Y]ou look at this guy, he should have a better record than what he has,” said Guillén, a former White Sox shortstop in his second year as manager. “He has thrown the ball well. It doesn’t seem like it because we don’t score enough runs for him. But I think the consistency is a lot better. I’m happier with him right now than I was last year.”2

And that happiness only grew in the second half of the campaign as Contreras played a pivotal role while the White Sox rolled up the American League’s number-one playoff seed with their best season since 1983.3

After losing to the A’s, Contreras went 12-2 as the White Sox ace. Half of those wins came away from US Cellular Field, and his “road warrior” status continued into the postseason when he took the hill on October 16 for Game Five of the AL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim looking to give the White Sox their first pennant since 1959.

On the heels of three straight complete-game victories from his rotation mates Freddy García, Jon Garland, and Mark Buehrle, Contreras also went the distance in a 6-3 victory at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The group became the first quartet of pitchers to win four consecutive postseason games without a reliever since the 1928 New York Yankees4 and pushed the White Sox into their fifth World Series.5

“I’ve never seen four horses like that come out of the gate and [pitch] so well,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “You might have to go back to Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, that group [with the Dodgers] or the group Baltimore had in 1966. These guys pitched tremendous baseball.”6

Added White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who caught all 45 innings in the ALCS: “It has to be one of the best pitched series of all time.”7

A Sunday night crowd of 44,712 fans watched through drizzle8 and, at times, the hometown faithful had hope the Angels would break out of their offensive funk in a win-or-go-home scenario against the major leagues’ best road team.9 The Angels defeated Contreras and the White Sox 3-2 in Game One in Chicago but struggled over the next three games, collectively hitting .165 and scoring only five runs.10

After holding a team meeting following an 8-2 loss in Game Four, the Angels’ Scioscia shuffled his lineup to alternate right-handed and left-handed batters against Contreras.11 The Angels took a step forward offensively – although the White Sox still struck first for a fourth game in a row.12

In the top of the second, Chicago’s Aaron Rowand dropped a ground-rule double just inside the right-field foul line and, after moving to third on Pierzynski’s sacrifice bunt, he scored on Joe Crede’s fly out to center. The Angels evened the score in the bottom of the third after Juan Rivera doubled on the first pitch of the inning, advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw, and scored on Adam Kennedy’s single to left-center.13

Chicago reclaimed the lead in the fifth. Juan Uribe doubled to left past a diving Chone Figgins with one out, Scott Podsednik followed with a nine-pitch walk, and Jermaine Dye stroked a first-pitch double into left-center to chase Los Angeles starter Paul Byrd, who had earned the win in Game One.

The Angels responded in the bottom of the inning to take their first lead since that Game One victory. Kennedy beat out a grounder to third, and on a hit-and-run play, Figgins launched a double into right field. A fan interfered with the ball in play and the umpires awarded Kennedy home plate to knot the game at 2-2. Orlando Cabrera grounded out to move Figgins to third, and Figgins scored on Garret Anderson’s fly out to the warning track in right.

But from that point on, Contreras did not allow another baserunner.

Crede supported Contreras’s brilliant effort by crushing Angels reliever Kelvim Escobar’s second pitch for a game-tying home run to left to lead off the seventh.14

“Joe-Joe, sometimes it looks like he doesn’t have a pulse out there,” White Sox veteran Paul Konerko said of his 27-year-old teammate, who hit .368 during the ALCS. “That comes up big in big situations, because he doesn’t get amped up, he doesn’t try to overdo anything. He just stays within himself, and I’m just so happy for the guy.”15

Despite allowing the homer, Escobar settled in and recorded the next five outs via the strikeout. But he walked Rowand with two outs in the eighth and became involved in an unusual play that eventually led to the winning run.

Pierzynski lined a sharp shot that deflected off Escobar’s body and to the first-base side of the mound. Escobar fielded the ball with his bare right hand, but as Pierzynski chugged to first, Escobar tagged him with his gloved left hand, while still holding the ball in his right hand. First-base umpire Ted Barrett initially ruled Pierzynski out, but after huddling with the other umpires, the call was reversed.

“I knew he had an empty glove,” Pierzynski said. “That’s why I was screaming right away.”16

Scioscia did not put up much of an argument after the decision was overturned and acknowledged in postgame comments that the umpires made the correct call.17 He pulled Escobar from the game in favor of closer Francisco Rodríguez, who led the AL with 45 saves during the regular season18 but had not worked since Game One.

Crede battled back from a 1-and-2 count to hit a bouncer up the middle. Second baseman Kennedy made a diving stop but could not make a play because the runners had taken off on Rodríguez’s 3-and-2 breaking ball. That allowed Rowand to score from second and gave the White Sox a 4-3 edge.

Tadahito Iguchi walked to open Chicago’s ninth. He slid in safely on his first stolen-base attempt of the postseason because Kennedy could not field the throw cleanly, getting charged with his first error in 101 postseason chances. After Dye walked, Konerko ripped an RBI double off the top of the wall in right field, giving voters another reason to select him as the ALCS MVP.

“I’d like to split this [award] four ways among our pitchers,” Konerko said after hitting .286 with 2 homers and 7 RBIs in the series. “They’re the horses. I was just along for the ride. Really, we all were.”19

The White Sox added their final run when Dye scored on Rowand’s fly to right.

In the bottom of the ninth, Contreras threw only one ball among his 11 pitches to finish off the complete game with 15 straight outs.20 His 114-pitch effort helped make the White Sox the 11th team to win three successive road games in a single postseason series.21 Chicago’s only reliever to appear in the ALCS was Neal Cotts, who pitched two-thirds of an inning in Game One.

“[Contreras] went from the last starter to being the [Number One] in the playoffs,” said Guillén, the first foreign-born manager to lead his team into the World Series.22 “If you told me in April [that] José Contreras was going to be my ace and Bobby Jenks was going to be my closer, I would tell you I don’t think we’re going to win.”23

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and box scores. He also used information obtained from news coverage by the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. The author also viewed the game on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5aIEBBG5bU&t=5112s.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ANA/ANA200510160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B10160ANA2005.htm

Notes

1 On July 31, 2004, the New York Yankees traded Contreras to the White Sox for starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza.

2 Mark Gonzales, “Bay Area Blues Go On,” Chicago Tribune, July 2, 2005: 3-1.

3 Chicago matched its 1983 record, finishing the season at 99-63 to win the AL Central Division title for the first time since 2000. The White Sox were in at least a tie for first place throughout the entire season. Only the NL’s St. Louis Cardinals had a better record (100-62) in 2005.

4 In the 1928 World Series, New York swept the St. Louis Cardinals behind complete games from Waite Hoyt (Games One and Four), George Pipgras (Game Two), and Tom Zachary (Game Three). In 1956, Yankees starters hurled five straight complete games during the World Series, with Whitey Ford (Game Three), Tom Sturdivant (Game Four), Don Larsen (Game Five), Bob Turley (Game Six loss), and Johnny Kucks (Game Seven) contributing to New York’s victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. For the White Sox, the last time their starters fired four successive complete games was August 21-25, 1974, when Wilbur Wood (twice), Jim Kaat, and Bart Johnson all went the distance.

5 The White Sox won the World Series in 1906 and 1917 and took losses in 1919 and 1959. Chicago also won the first-ever AL pennant after the league declared major-league status in 1901, but the first World Series between the AL and NL was not played until 1903.

6 Phil Rogers, “Sox Pennant Win a Complete Work,” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2005: 7-7.

7 Mark Gonzales, “Wizards of Oz,” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2005: 7-3.

8 Rain and baseball rarely mixed in Anaheim. The last time the Angels had a rained-out home game was against the White Sox on June 16, 1995. The next rainout at Angel Stadium did not occur until July 19, 2015 – a stretch of 1,635 home games.

9 The White Sox finished the regular season 52-29 on the road, which was two games better than the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals and better than their record at home (47-34). During the postseason, Chicago won all six of its road games (one in the ALDS, three in the ALCS, and two in the World Series).

10 Overall in the Series, the Angels scored 11 runs in five games. That marked the lowest total for a team in the ALCS since the 1990 Boston Red Sox scored four runs while getting swept by the Athletics. No team had scored fewer runs in a five-game ALCS except the 1972 Detroit Tigers, who posted only 10 runs in a loss to the A’s. LA’s offensive struggles were punctuated by Vladimir Guerrero. The reigning AL MVP, who signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Angels prior to the 2004 season, went 1-for-20 in the ALCS. (He had hit .333 in LA’s five-game win over the Yankees in the ALDS.)

11 The Angels used four lineups throughout the Series. The only batters to hit in the same spot in all five games were Figgins (leadoff), Cabrera (second), and Kennedy (ninth). The most notable change to LA’s lineup in Game Five saw Anderson move up from fourth to third and Guerrero drop from third to fourth in the order. Compared with Game One against Contreras, Bengie Molina and Darin Erstad flipped spots at fifth and sixth in the order, Rivera dropped from seventh to eighth, and Casey Kotchman played instead of Steve Finley.

12 During the first two rounds of the postseason, the White Sox went 5-0 when scoring first. In Game One of the ALCS, the Angels struck first with a run in the top of the second inning.

13 Prior to Kennedy’s hit, the Angels had gone 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position during the eries.

14 In Game Two, Crede hit a walk-off double off Escobar on a similar pitch.

15 Paul Sullivan, “Cool Crede Delivers,” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2005: 7-4.

16 David Haugh, “He Was Everywhere,” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2005: 7-4.

17 Ronald Blum (Associated Press), “Windy City Wonders,” Oakland Tribune, October 17, 2005: 33.

18 Rodríguez tied for the league lead in saves with Cleveland closer Bob Wickman and added 91 strikeouts over 67 1/3 innings.

19 Rick Morrissey, “America, Here Come the Sox,” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2005: 7-3.

20 Contreras had only one complete game to his credit, coming against the Minnesota Twins on September 23 as part of eight successive victories to close out the season. Collectively, White Sox starters fired nine complete games during the regular season. (Buehrle and Garland each had three, and García added two.)

21 Teams to achieve the feat before the White Sox were the Boston Red Sox (1903), New York Yankees (1941, ’49, ’61, and ’96), St. Louis Cardinals (1942 and ’85), Baltimore Orioles (1983), Minnesota Twins (1991), and Arizona Diamondbacks (2001). Five other teams won at least three successive postseason games on the road but did so across multiple series: the Oakland Athletics (1972 and ’74), Yankees (1999), San Francisco Giants (2002), and Florida Marlins (2003).

22 Guillén became the first Venezuelan native to manage in the AL or NL after the White Sox hired him before the 2004 season. Later that year, another Venezuelan, Al Pedrique, became the interim manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

23 Bob Buttitta, “Whiteout for Angels,” Ventura County (California) Star, October 17, 2005: C4.