| Kyle Trompeter. 11th August, 2005 - 3:55 pm
 Performing in a playoff atmosphere is a true test in determining whether a team is for real or if they are a pretender. Holding a potent lineup like what the New York Yankees has to five runs over three games is primetime stuff. That is what the Chicago White Sox pitching staff accomplished in helping the team take two out of three games from the Yanks in the Bronx, silencing some of the doubters who have said this team has been beating up on lesser opponents for some time now.
Throw out the fact that the White Sox only managed to scratch across six runs in the three games. The south-siders came up with the timely hitting that is indicative of what World Series caliber teams are made of. This team knows that in some games, an opportunity to score may come only once or twice a game, so they make the best of the situations that are presented to them.
Take for example on Wednesday: Juan Uribe is on third base after a one out triple off Mariano Rivera, and Scott Podsednik is at the plate with the infield in and the game tied 1-1 in the top of the tenth inning. Knowing a sacrifice fly from the slap hitting Podsednik is not a likely scenario, Uribe is taking a good secondary lead and will be off on contact on a grounder to the drawn in infield. Sure enough, Podsednik rolls one on the ground to Robinson Cano at second base and he quickly fires the ball back home to the catcher Jorge Posada, but it is not in time as Uribe took a hard slide into home and beat the play by an eyelash. 2-1 White Sox. Ballgame.
It is plays like this one that make the White Sox what they are, which is the best team in baseball. They rarely let an opportunity to put a team away slip through the cracks, and they have to execute like that because this is not a team loaded with superstars. The reason they win so many ballgames is because they are the most fundamentally sound team in baseball, they hustle and they never ever take a play off.
Now the White Sox march into Fenway Park on Friday for a three game set with the Red Sox. The two teams matched up a couple of weeks ago at U.S. Cellular Field in a four game series with both teams winning a pair. However, this time around the Red Sox are playing much stronger baseball coming into the series. They have won 8 of their last ten games, won four in a row and coming off a sweep of the Texas Rangers. To say this series is a bit of a litmus test for the White Sox is like saying a tornado is just a little wind. This series is huge for the White Sox. If they can take two out of three, or possibly all three, it would make them the hands down team to beat in the American League.
A 4-2 or possibly 5-1 road trip going through both the Yankees and Red Sox on the road would send the message that the ALCS may not have the same two teams that it has had for the last two seasons. The White Sox can beat the playoff powerhouses, be it that it still only may be the regular season, the atmosphere of a playoff game is there, and this team does not falter. It?s a mindset created by the manager Ozzie Guillen. A mindset that says we don?t care what the situation is or who the opponent may be, we will play our style of baseball, which is smart baseball and precise execution with 100 percent effort by all 25 guys. It?s a winning formula that may take them deep into October. |
