'68 Pale Hose take 3 of 4 from '87 Tribe

9/26-9/27 - Comiskey Park
GAME 1 - White Sox 2, Indians 1

With their playoff lives on life support the Chisox entered this series realistically needing to win 3 of 4 to have a fighting chance to overtake Seattle for the final wild card playoff slot.  Pundits would have given the Chisox the pitching advantage over Cleveland in this opener as Gary Peters ERA was about two and a half points lower than his opponent Ken Schrom.  Cleveland scored first thanks to 3 consecutive two out singles, the third by Joe Carter which plated Pat Tabler.  Chicago needed to scratch for runs like usual and got a break in the bottom of the 5th when Buddy Bradford led off the inning with a double off the left center wall.  Peters, who for a pitcher is rock solid with the lumber, hit a bullet to Tabler at first base to advance Bradford 90 feet.  "Little" Luis Aparicio lifted a fly to left that was just deep enough to score Bradford and knot the game at 1.  It would stay tied at 1 until the bottom of the 8th when Tom McCraw led off with a walk off of reliever Doug Jones.  "Mac" immediately stole second and was bunted over to third by Ken "F-Troop" Berry.  Pete Ward came through in the clutch with a clean single to right to score McCraw.  Hoyt Wilhelm would replace Don McMahon, who pitched a scoreless 8th, to start the 9th and easily get 3 quick outs for his 8th save of the season.


GAME 2 - White Sox 4, Indians 2

Chicago rested their fortunes on the pre-surgical left arm of the disappointing Tommy John (2-5, 6.02).  John, who has been putrid all season, needed to come up big or his team would be on the outside looking in for a post season birth.  The Pale Hose attempted to make it easy on their embattled lefty by staking him to a 2-0 lead with solo runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings.  An RBI single by Tommy Davis in the first scored Aparicio, who led off the inning with a walk.  A solo homer by Ward, his 4th of the season, made it 2-0.  John, however looked to be reverting back to his troubled ways by allowing solo runs to the Tribe in the 3rd and 4th innings to tie the game at 2.  After fanning Chris Bando and pitcher Akerfelds to get 2 outs it looked like a good bet that Tony "bare chested" Bernazard would be stranded on second after his lead off double.  Julio Franco had something to say about it and singled home Bernazard to make it 2-1.  Brook Jacoby led off the 4th with a double and scored two batters later thanks to a Cory Snyder single.  Entering the bottom of the 6th the score was still knotted at 2 all when the catalyst Little Louie Aparicio bunted his way on to lead off the inning.  Sandy Alomar attempted to bunt him over to second, but the hard charging Jacoby made a great play to cut the speedy Aparicio down at second.  Alomar, who was ticked off by his ineffective sacrifice, found a way to get even with his legs.  After easily stealing second Alomar then stole third thanks to Tommy Davis' patience at the plate.  With Alomar dancing off of third Akerfelds lost all concentration and grooved a 2-2 offering that Davis lined over the fence in right center for an opposite field homer.  With the score 4-2 Chicago John was put on a tight leash.  He was able to get through the next two innings before giving way to Wilhelm who got 3 easy outs in the 9th for his 9th save of the campaign.


9/28-9/29 - Municipal Stadium
GAME 3 - Indians 6, White Sox 2

After taking the first 2 games of the series the Chisox were heavily favored in this contest with their ace Joe Horlen (5-2, 3.03) on the hill.  Horlen was facing knuckleball specialist Tom Candiotti (6-1, 3.24), who spent some time talking shop with Hoyt Wilhelm prior to the game.  The "candy man" idolized Wilhelm, and for those of you who are trivia buffs, played Wilhelm in Billy Crystal's classic *61.  Whatever the conversation was the Candy Man came out looking sharp and his knuckler was really dancing.  Horlen on the other hand was a sharp as a butter knife trying to cut through a frozen brick of ice cream.  Cleveland set the stage early with 3 big runs off of Horlen in the bottom of the 1st.  Julio Franco, who had a 1 out single, scored on a ground out by DH Pat Tabler.  Joe Carter followed with a 2 run shot and the Tribe was off and running.  Solo runs in the 4th and 5th cut Cleveland's lead to 1, but the Tribe answered right back with another 3 spot in the bottom of the 5th to take a 4 run lead that they would never relinquish.  Once again Carter came though with 2 big RBI's.  This time he had a 2 run single with 2 outs as he battled Horlen tooth and nail.  Chicago's anemic offense never threatened the rest of the way.


GAME 4 - White Sox 7, Indians 3

Jack Fisher (4-2, 2.58) had one assignment:  WIN !  A Chicago loss and their season would all but be over unless Seattle perpetrated a monumental collapse vs the Angels.  A two out double by Tabler plated Jacoby and staked Cleveland starter Scott Bailes to a 1-0 lead that he would carry into the fateful 4th inning where the Chisox mustered up all of the offense they could find and scored 7 big runs.   Bailes and his replacement Rich "Not" Yett were victimized by poor fielding (3 errors), poor control (2 WP's) and a poor pitching.  Tommy McCraw started off the scoring with a 2 run single with 1 out.  From that point on it just got worse and worse.  Jerry McNertney singled home a run, then DH Dick Kenworthy doubled home the 4th run of the inning.  Back to back errors by Cleveland's pourus infield helped complete the meltdown as Bill Melton put the explanation point on the inning with a RBI two bagger.  Chicago cruised until the bottom of the 9th when reliever Cisco Carlos loaded the bases and once again Hoyt Wilhem had to come in from the pen to put out the fire.  Joe Carter was called on to pinch hit for Chris Hinzo in one of those hero situations.  A long ball would tie the game, but it was not meant to be as Wilhelm fluttered a kuckler to the plate that Carter grounded to Bill Melton at 3rd.  The rookie third sacker, who looks to show much promise, ranged to his left and easily scooped the hard hop up and pegged Carter at first by a stride to end it.  Wilhelm notched his 3rd save of the series and 10th of the season.  Chicago did what they needed to do by taking 3 of 4 games and will now sit back and scoreboard watch as Seattle takes on league leading California later in the day.