The View from Houston
(It's Not Pretty)
Here's an article on the game from the Houston Chronicle.
Despite rally in 9th inning, Astros fail to even Series
By STEVE CAMPBELLCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
CHICAGO - Paul Konerko stepped out of the Chicago White Sox dugout at 9:45 p.m. Sunday for a grand-slam curtain call. Anybody who assumed that one mere mortal blow would prove to be curtains for the Houston Astros hasn't been paying attention.
Sunday night at U.S. Cellular Field, it took a ninth-inning sucker punch to bring down the Astros once and for all. Scott Podsednik, of all people, drilled a one-out, ninth-inning home run that gave the White Sox a frenetic 7-6 victory in Game 2 of the 101st World Series.
A crowd of 41,432 saw Podsednik prevail in a resistible-force-vs.-sudden- ly-movable-object confrontation with Astros reliever Brad Lidge. Podsednik didn't hit a home run in 507 regular-season at-bats. Lidge has served up game-losing home runs in his past two appearances, leaving the Astros in a blindfold-and-cigarette predicament in the Series.
''I don't think anyone in the ballpark," Podsednik said, ''was thinking about me hitting it out of the ballpark"
Then Lidge grooved a 2-1 fastball, and Podsednik was taking a victory lap around the bases, sending the Astros scurrying home with a 2-0 Series deficit. Of the past 49 teams to face a such a predicament, only 11 have recovered to win the title.
''We're certainly not in a good spot," Astros manager Phil Garner said. ''We had a chance to win this ballgame, as badly as we played. It's not the best situation, but it's the one we're in. We'll bounce back"
They bounced back Sunday from an early 2-1 deficit to build a 4-2 lead. Astros left-hander Andy Pettitte escaped a two-on, two-out jam by getting catcher A.J. Pierzynski to pop out to end the sixth inning. Pettitte had allowed eight hits and thrown 98 pitches on a rainy, 45-degrees-and-falling night, so Garner turned to his bullpen in the seventh inning.
Dan Wheeler took the mound with the lowest career postseason earned run average of any active reliever (0.60). Wheeler left two outs later with the bases loaded on a hit, a walk and a hit batsman. Seven outs from the first Series victory in Astros history, Chad Qualls came in to face Konerko.
Five nights after Konerko became a father for the first time, he blasted Qualls' first pitch over the left-field wall. The first postseason grand slam in White Sox history made the score 6-4, with Game 1 saving grace Bobby Jenks in waiting.
''It's the second-best feeling I've had all week," Konerko said. ''It's kind of an out-of-body thing"
Jenks, a 24-year-old rookie who got the save in Game 1, was one out away from closing the deal again when Garner sent pinch hitter José Vizcaino to the plate. Vizcaino drove in Jeff Bagwell and Chris Burke, who made a nifty slide around Pierzynski at the plate, with a single to left. Tie score.
Podsednik untied it with the 14th walkoff home run in Series history. This one came off an Astros closer who was taking the mound for the first time since having surrendered a mammoth, game-losing blow to St. Louis' Albert Pujols six days earlier in the National League Championship Series.
''This one came at a good time," said Podsednik, who has two home runs this postseason. ''I remember standing out in left field after Paul (Konerko) did what he did, thinking, 'Man, what does that guy feel like?' So to go out and hit one out of the ballpark for a game-winner is pretty much indescribable"
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, his team suddenly two victories from winning the Series for the first time since 1917, shook his head in amazement.
''This team made me mad for seven innings," Guillen said. ''All of a sudden, they made me smile in the ninth"
Garner wasn't exactly getting the warm fuzzies watching his team, either. In particular, a two-run second inning rally by the White Sox stuck in his craw. The rally started when Astros third baseman Morgan Ensberg, who had hit his first homer of the playoffs in the top of the inning, did an olé wave at a bad-hop grounder by Aaron Rowand. Single.
Then Chris Burke took a circuitous route to a fly ball to left by Pierzynski. The ball fell safely, off the lower portion of the wall. Another single.
Yet another single by Joe Crede, this one a blooper to right, and a dropped pop-up by second baseman Craig Biggio, gave the White Sox a 2-1 lead.
''We had three balls that should be caught," Garner said. ''Those should have been outs"
Lance Berkman tied the score with a third-inning sacrifice fly and untied it with a two-run double in the fifth. Pettitte was on the mound, with a well-armed bullpen in waiting. After 44 years of waiting just to get to the Series, the Astros will have to wait at least a little longer to win a game.
''It's like playing ourselves out there," Konerko said. ''These guys have a lot of heart. They don't go away. They fight"
The Astros, after all, have picked themselves up from a 15-30 start. The last time a team dug itself out from 15 games under .500 to the postseason was in 1914. That Boston team came to be known as the Miracle Braves, winning the Series. Before the Astros dare to dream that big, they need to win a game.
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