October 7, 2005: White Sox complete AL Division Series sweep of Red Sox

The last time the White Sox won a playoff series was also the last year they won the World Series, 88 years earlier, in 1917. They would need to overcome Boston in the Red Sox’ home ballpark in an American League Division Series to do so in 2005. Boston had broken its 86-year World Series championship drought the previous year. Of the 22 teams to go down two games to none in a division series, only four had come back to win. The Red Sox had done so twice, in 1999 vs. Cleveland and in 2003 vs. Oakland.1

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski said, “That’s the hardest one to win, the closing game. They know it could be the end of their year, and they’ll give it all they can to try to get back in it. The last one is always harder. Each victory in a series gets harder. The last one was hard, but this one will be even harder.”2

The Red Sox turned to Tim Wakefield, who had beaten the White Sox 7-4 at Fenway Park on August 13. The White Sox tapped Freddy García, who had been magnificent on the road during the season with a 10-3 record. One of those losses came on August 23, when he pitched a one-hitter vs. the Twins, giving up just a home run to Jacque Jones.

Scott Podsednik led off for the White Sox and was hit by a pitch, but was soon caught stealing at second with an excellent throw by Doug Mirabelli, who normally caught knuckleballer Wakefield. Wakefield then struck out Tadahito Iguchi and Jermaine Dye.

In the bottom of the first, Red Sox leadoff hitter Johnny Damon also reached base, with a walk, but was unable to score. Edgar Renteria popped out to third, and during a hit-and-run, David Ortiz lined into an unassisted double play to third baseman Joe Crede, who was playing the shift near second base.

The first runs of the game were scored in the top of the third. after a sliding catch in right field by Trot Nixon and a deep-in-the-hole groundout to Renteria. Juan Uribe started the two-out rally with a double to left off the Green Monster. Podsednik followed with a double to the left-field corner, scoring Uribe. Iguchi singled up the middle to bring Podsednik around and made it 2-0. Jermaine Dye singled but Wakefield minimized the damage by getting Paul Konerko to fly out to right.

Heading into Game Three, the lack of offense from the Red Sox was a concern. After two games they had scored only six runs, were hitting .211 with runners in scoring position, and had no home runs. The White Sox had an offensive explosion of 19 runs, a .533 batting average with runners in scoring position, and six home runs. That changed in the bottom of the fourth.

David Ortiz led off the inning with a home run to center and Manny Ramirez followed with another homer, to right, to tie the game, 2-2. This was only the second time in 2005 that Ortiz and Ramirez hit back-to-back home runs; the first was 17 days before, on September 20 vs. the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. García eventually retired the next three batters to end the fourth.

The sixth inning proved the deciding inning of both the game and the Series as neither starting pitcher made it to the seventh. Wakefield started the sixth by walking Dye and then giving up a home run to Paul Konerko to give the White Sox a 4-2 lead. The last batter he faced was Carl Everett, who grounded out to first.

Manager Terry Francona, who was 4-0 in elimination games in his managerial career at the time, went to his bullpen for Chad Bradford and his submarine-style approach against Aaron Rowand. It didn’t work and Rowand singled to center field. Bradford was replaced by Mike Myers to face Pierzynski. While Myers focused on attacking A.J., Rowand stole second. Myers ultimately walked Pierzynski.

Francona once again went to the bullpen – this time to bring in rookie Jonathan Papelbon to face Crede. The 24-year-old had never pitched above Class A before 2005.3 Right fielder Trot Nixon benefited from familiarity with his home ballpark and caught Crede’s foul popup reaching into the first row of the short right-field stands. Rowand tagged up on the play and took third base. With Uribe up, Pierzynski stole second, his first stolen base of the season. Papelbon stranded both runners by striking out Uribe.

García normally pitched deep into games during the 2005 season: Of his 33 starts, 26 were six or more innings and 22 were seven or more. However, he didn’t record another out. Ramirez led off the bottom of the sixth by hitting his second home run of the game, making the score 4-3 and knocking García out of the game. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén called for Dámaso Marté, who did not have it that night. Nixon – the first batter he faced – hit a line-drive single to right field. Marte then walked Bill Mueller and John Olerud to load the bases with nobody out. A rally was brewing.

Guillén then made a surprising choice and went to the veteran starter Orlando Hernández, who was making the 18th postseason appearance of his career. With Wakefield out, Francona had Jason Varitek bat for Mirabelli. Varitek was 3-for-8 in the first two games of the Series and the Red Sox would need a big inning here to extend this to a fourth game. Hernández got Varitek to pop out in foul territory on the first-base side to Konerko near the fungo circles.

Next came Tony Graffanino, looking to redeem himself from an earlier Game Two error. He battled through a 10-pitch at-bat before eventually popping out to shortstop Uribe on the infield grass for the second out of the inning.

Damon worked the count full but struck out on a close checked swing. “I was hoping we could get out of it with a run,” White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said.4 The Red Sox were 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position heading into Game Three. After their best opportunity of the game, they couldn’t convert and ended the series 4-for-24.

Both Papelbon and Hernández continued to hold the opposing offenses at bay. After Hernández retired eight batters in a row, Olerud singled to center field with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Hernández struck out Varitek swinging to end the inning. Hernández in his three shutout innings pitched gave up just one hit and struck out four.

Mike Timlin replaced Papelbon in the top of the ninth and the White Sox finally demonstrated some of their small ball/Ozzie ball that was so successful for them during the season. After Pierzynski led off with a double to left, Crede sacrificed him Pierzynski to third. The White Sox added an insurance run on a suicide squeeze with Uribe getting the bunt down – fielded by Timlin, but scoring Pierzynski and making it a 5-3 White Sox lead. Uribe ended up safe at first, but Timlin finished the inning without allowing any more runs.

For the bottom of the ninth, Guillén again turned to rookie Bobby Jenks. In Game Two, Jenks nailed down six outs to save a 5-4 White Sox win. He needed only 10 pitches to get the last three outs of the Series.5 Facing Boston’s ninth, first, and second hitters, Jenks got Graffanino to ground out to Crede at third and struck out Damon. The year before with the St. Louis Cardinals, Renteria made the last out of the World Series against the Red Sox. Now with Boston, it was up to him to try to extend their season. Jenks got the better of him and he grounded out to Iguchi at second, closing out the game and winning the Series for the White Sox.

“Don’t get too high,” Guillén said after the celebration started to subside. “We beat one of the best teams in baseball and continue to ride very low. Don’t get too high. Don’t get too excited. We’ll wait for whoever we’re playing and take it one day at a time.”6

It had been 88 years since Clarence Henry “Pants” Rowland led the White Sox to a playoff series win and the Chicago fans were excited to celebrate. Hundreds of people waited several hours for the team’s return at Chicago’s Midway Airport the next day to cheer on the team.7

The next stop on the White Sox’ march to their 2005 World Series championship was at home three days later, on October 11, vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, playing their third game in as many days and cities after beating the New York Yankees in Anaheim in Game Five of the other AL Division Series.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the authors consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200510070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B10070BOS2005.htm

Photo credit: Paul Konerko, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Chris Snow, “For Starters, Several Options Being Weighed,” Boston Globe, October 6, 2005: D4.

2 Mark Gonzales, “Won Two … Three?; Looking to Sweep Series, White Sox Take Aim at Knuckleballer Wakefield,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 2005: 4-1.

3 Chris Snow, “The Bottom Was Up at the Wrong Time,” Boston Globe, October 8, 2005: F5.

4 Mark Gonzales, “1st-Round KO: White Sox Sweep Away World Series Champions; Next Stop, the ALCS; White Sox 5, Red Sox 3,” Chicago Tribune, October 8, 2005: 6-3.

5 Tom Verducci, “Power and Fury,” Sports Illustrated, October 17, 2005: 50.

6 Mark Gonzales, “Stakes, Reward Rise; Sox Stay Low-Key, Ride 8-Game Win Streak into ALCS,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 2005: 17-2.

7 Brendan McCarthy, “Sox Fans Are Flying High at Midway,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 2005: 17-2.