Sox win it in a Whitewash

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Sweep to first Series crown in 88 years

BY ANTHONY McCARRON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

HOUSTON - There will be warmth during the coming cold Chicago winter, at least on the South Side, as White Sox fans relish every sweet moment from this October, including the final out last night when the Sox completed their World Series sweep of the Astros with a 1-0 victory in Game 4.

As the Sox players celebrated on the Astros' home turf, relief must have cascaded along with the wind down 35th Street outside U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox hadn't won a World Series since 1917, the second-longest title drought in baseball, and most of the franchise's notoriety since has come either from that futility or the stain of the gambling scandal of the Black Sox two years later.

It is the second straight season that a decades-long championship famine has ended, following the Red Sox last year. Are the Cubs, the lovable losers who haven't won anything since 1908, already getting cocky about '06?

It was the South Siders from the city of beer and bratwurst who were enjoying champagne last night, though. And some tweaking, too. "All I can say is the South Side is the No. 1 side," Carl Everett said. "North Side, you're behind us now."

Someone was passing out Wheaties boxes with Mark Buehrle's picture on them and long-suffering fans joined in the celebration, chanting, at times, "Bring that trophy over here" and "Thank you, White Sox."

Jermaine Dye was the Series MVP, but the Sox could thank their starting pitching for this championship. Freddy Garcia (1-0) matched Brandon Backe for seven scoreless innings before the Sox scored against Houston's bullpen in the eighth.

The only run of the game came off Houston closer Brad Lidge, who had a torturous finish to the postseason, losing his last three decisions. Pinch-hitter Willie Harris led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Scott Podsednik and scored one out later on Dye's groundball single up the middle, quieting the 42,936 in the stands.

Dye batted .438 with one homer and three RBI and got a hit in every game.

The Astros, who struggled to score all season, were shut out in the final six innings of Game 3, leaving 19 runners on base and scoring zero runs over the Series' final 15 innings. They went 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position over that span, including 0-for-11 last night. They left 24 men on base over the last two games of the Series and hit .203 overall. The Sox always seemed to be able to pitch around the best Astro hitter, Lance Berkman.

The Astros had a runner on second with one out in the ninth last night but couldn't score, thwarted by shortstop Juan Uribe, who made a tremendous catch by plunging into the stands to snare Chris Burke's foul pop. Uribe then ended the game by charging in to throw out Orlando Palmeiro by half a step on a slow bouncer over the mound. The Astros had the tying run at third in the eighth inning and failed to get him home that time, too.

"We had some quality at-bats, but couldn't find any holes," said Houston's Craig Biggio. "I think it was more their destiny to win this Series than it was ours."

"The bottom line is they did a pretty good job of pitching against us," added Houston manager Phil Garner, who was angry at his team's lack of production in Game 3. He also noted that feeble hitting has been "a trait of ours all year and we managed to win even though we hadn't done that."

Not in this series. The White Sox finished the postseason 11-1, winning their final eight games to tie the record held by the 2004 Red Sox. Chicago joined the 1999 Yankees as the only teams to finish the expanded playoffs with just one loss. They are also the only team to clinch three series on the road in the same postseason. That is fitting considering they were unbeaten on the road in the playoffs and had baseball's best away record during the season.

On his winning hit, Dye said he had a plan against Lidge, who throws an upper-90s fastball and a nasty slider.

"He throws hard, but usually his fastball is just to keep you honest," Dye said. "And I stuck with the game plan of going up there, looking for a slider and just not trying to do too much with it. . . . I just tried to hit it hard somewhere and found a hole up the middle."

And a place in Chicago's heart. The championship was such a happy occasion that even manager Ozzie Guillen admitted his chatter about possibly retiring was just bunk. Guillen, the flamboyant, outspoken Chicago icon said it was, along with the births of his three children, "the most wonderful day of my life." He also said he'd take the World Series trophy to his native Venezuela.

First, it's got to go to Chicago. It's been a long time.