GAME #1 - 10/1 - Anaheim Stadium
Angels 4, White Sox 2
With ace Frank Tanana (7-1, 2.02) going Gary Peters must have felt just like cannon fodder. When all the smoke cleared Peters was just that, cannon fodder. After California scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th the dye was cast. Tanana was on his "A" game and there was no way the anemic Pale Hose offense would get to him. Back to back RBI doubles by Bert Campaneris and Rod Carew plated the runs. Campy would single home Larry Harlow (who tripled) in the 6th to add an insurance run. The Chisox made a run at it in the top of the 9th and scored a run, but Ken Berry grounded into his second DP of the day to virtually put an end to it. Walt "no neck" Williams striking out on an Andy Hassler change up was the final nail. Tanana fanned 6 and gave up just 1 run over 7 innings. Peters gave up 4 runs on 11 hits over 7 and took the loss.
GAME #2 - 10/2 - Anaheim Stadium
White Sox 7, Angels 2
Down 1 game to none the Chisox put their season firmly on the
shoulders of the enigmatic Tommy John (3-5, 5.50). To call John a disappointment would be like saying, "Congress has underachieved". Chicago's goal was to get a split on the coast and head home with the series tied. Don Aase (5-2, 3.08) would be toeing the rubber for the AL West Champion Angels. Chicago would start the scoring in the bottom of the 2nd when Tommy McCraw hit a solo shot to right. In the third the Pale Hose would score again, this time by playing small ball. "Little" Luis Aparicio, who is the uncontested leader and team MVP for Chicago dragged a bunt down the first base line for a hit. Sandy Alomar slapped an infield single to third to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Tommy Davis coming to bat. Davis fooled everyone by laying down a perfect sacrifice to push the runners up 90 feet. Aparicio scored on McCraw's ground out to second. The fourth inning would see the Southsiders take a 3-0 lead on a 2 out RBI single by Aparicio that scored DH Leon Wagner. All it took was one good inning and the Halos were back in it. Larry Harlow singled home Brian Downing who reached base on a walk and Bobby Grich scored on a ground out to third by Freddie Patek. Fans back in the Windy City who were watching the game on TV must have been muttering under their breathe, "Here we go again...John's going to crack". If they said that they would have had good cause considering his poor regular season performances. Today however John was a new man. In fact his last 2 regular season outings were pretty good. Seems "TJ" saves his best for the big stage and with the Chisox not scoring he needed to lock it down. Heading into the 9th the game was tighter than a drum with the Chisox still clinging to a 1 run lead with a pitcher on the hill who fans weren't completely confident in. Pete Ward led off the 9th with a solo homer off of reliever Dave LaRoche. Catcher Duane Josephson walked and two batters later 
Buddy Bradford doubled to right center to put runners on second and third with 1 out. Once again Little Luis would come through in the clutch by knocking in 2 with an opposite field single to right. Tommy Davis would lift a sac fly to left to round out the 4 run outburst that allowed John to stay in the game and notch the complete game victory while fanning 8.
GAME #3 - 10/4 - Comiskey Park
White Sox 4, Angels 1
The series left the sunny climate of Southern California and
headed to the brisk Autumnal climate of the Windy City. Chicago was ready to do battle with their ace, Joe Horlen (6-2, 2.88) on the mound. The Angels would counter with veteran Bruce Kison, who burst on the world stage back in 1971 when he was a rookie flamethrower for the Pittsburgh Pirates in their classic 7 game win over the Baltimore Orioles. Kison was now 9 years older and so was his fastball. To give Kison some confidence his offense posted the first salvo when Bobby Grich's grounder to first scored Rick Miller who singled to lead off the game. Chicago would answer back 2 innings later when Leon Wagner led off the inning with a two bagger. Horlen bunted Wagner over to third where he scored on Aparicio's grounder to short. Aparicio would come through one more time with an RBI single in the 5th to make it 2-0. In the 6th Pete Ward would single home Ken "F-Troop" Berry, who doubled with one out. The Southsiders would add another insurance run in the 8th when Alomar led off the inning with a walk, stole second and was bunted over to third by Davis. Tommy McCraw would lift a sac fly to deep center to score Alomar and make it 4-
1. The Angels threatened Horlen on more than one occasion, but could not deliver a run. By the 8th Horlen was finished for the day and swingman Wilbur Wood would come on in relief. Wood would give up lead off singles in both innings but his knuckleball had a lot of dance and he was able to get 4 big ground balls including a room service 6-4-3 DP by Carney Lansford to end California's chances. Chicago would now take a 2-1 series lead over the much more heavily favored Halos.
GAME #4 - 10/5 - Comiskey Park
White Sox 4, Angels 3
With their backs planted firmly up against the wall the Angels fate
rested on the right shoulder of Alfredo Martinez. Chicago pulled an "Ehmke" and went with untested southpaw Jerry Nyman. For those of you who are baseball historians Howard Ehmke was an unknown journeyman chosen by Connie Mack to open the 1929 World Series. Jerry Nyman was an unused / untested lefty who was a surprise choice for a game 4 starter. The one advantage Nyman had was the fact that he was a southpaw and California did not hit lefties well at all. In fact three of their best right handed batters (Grich, Baylor and Rudi) had terrible averages vs lefties. On 
paper, the move looked to be genius. On the field the move almost completely backfired. California scored immediately in the top of the 1st when Campaneris led off with a single and Carew bunted him over to second. "Disco" Dan Ford's single scored Campy easily to make it 1-0. Brian Downing was given an intentional pass and Nyman worked his way out of the jam by fanning lefty Larry Harlow. In the 3rd Carney Lansford doubled with 1 out and scored when Ford ripped a long single to left to make it 2-0. At this point both Nyman and the Chisox were on the ropes. Downing ripped a single to right and Ford, who reached second on an overthrow the previous play, attempted to score. Leon
Wagner charged the ball hard and threw a pea to Josephson who blocked the plate to tag out Ford for the second out of the inning. Harlow fanned for the second straight time and once again Nyman dodged a bullet. After 5 innings Nyman was gone from the game. The decision to start him yielded mixed results. He only gave up 2 runs in 5 innings, but Martinez was dominating and it began to look like 2 runs would be insurmountable. With Bob Priddy on the mound Carney Lansford would line one over the fence for a solo shot to make it 3-0. At this point Comiskey was completely silent. A lot of fans headed for the Red line "El" on 35th street. That would all change in the bottom of the 7th when Berry and Ward would lead off the inning with singles to put runners on the corners. Martinez, who had been cruising, was replaced by Mark Clear after Josephson flew out to center. Leon Wagner would walk to load the bases and pinch hitter Bill Melton would walk as well to score Chicago's first run of the day and make it 3-1. Up 
stepped the 5'8" Luis Aparicio. With the bases loaded there was no place to put him. Luis wasn't a threat for a grand slam, but he was a threat just the same. On a 2-1 count he lined the ball into right center for a 2 run double to tie the game up at 3. Melton would score the go ahead run 2 batters later on a Tommy Davis ground out. Just like that the Chisox were now in the driver's seat, but there was still 2 innings to go and a lot of baseball yet to be played. Well traveled veteran reliever Don McMahon would start the 8th to face Downing, but instead faced pinch hitter John Harris who popped out to center. Wilbur Wood would be summoned from the pen to face all thos hitters who had trouble with lefties. First Larry Harlow would pop up to shallow right and then Bobby Grich would rip one that died on the warning track for out number 3. The top of the 9th saw Rick Miller fly out to center and pinch hitter Dickey Thon line a single to left to give the Halos some hope. Patek, who replaced Campy a few innings back grounded to third
for the second out. The season came down to lefty Wood vs lefty Carew. Could the aging superstar hit machine keep the game going and his team's season alive with a hit off the lefty knuckleballer ? The answer would be no. Carew would fly out weakly to Berry in center and the Chisox did the unthinkable...they defeated the best team in baseball and punched their ticket for the ALCS vs Detroit.
No comments:
Post a Comment