The White Sox have spent the majority of this season leaping over obstacles, from the opening coast-to-coast trip to the suspensions from the Tigers brawl to the revolving door of rookies in their stretch-run rotation.
Now manager Jerry Manuel’s team faces its most daunting task of all: winning 11 postseason games with a crippled rotation, an inexperienced roster and a legion of doubters just waiting to say, “I told you so.”
The Sox’s second season begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Comiskey Park when left-hander Jim Parque faces Seattle right-hander Freddy Garcia in Game 1 of the Division Series. It will be Mike Sirotka vs. Paul Abbott in Game 2 and James Baldwin opposing Aaron Sele in Game 3. Sean Lowe will start Game 4 for the Sox, if necessary.
Cal Eldred’s elbow did not respond as well as the Sox had hoped after his 3 1/3-inning outing against Boston last Wednesday so he was left off the postseason roster, replaced by rookie reliever Chad Bradford.
“To get to postseason, obviously you’re going to have some casualties,” Manuel said. “And unfortunately for us, they lie in the area of starting pitching. What we have to do is be able to overcome it. I think we have enough men where we can do that. I’m looking forward to it and I’m excited for the opportunity. We might be sending out a Gideon’s Army, but I’ll take that army any time.”
The Sox desperately are trying to portray themselves as underdogs in the series, in spite of home-field advantage, a better record and a 7-5 edge over the Mariners in the regular season. But Seattle manager Lou Piniella isn’t buying it, suggesting the Sox’s supposed Achilles’ heel isn’t as much of a handicap as advertised.
“The White Sox didn’t win 95 games by accident,” Piniella said. “They have to have pretty good pitching. It’s not just offense.”
Parque was the Game 1 choice over Sirotka so the Sox could give their putative ace an extra day’s rest to recover from a slight hyperextension of the left elbow. Though he’s the probable Game 4 starter, Lowe will be in the bullpen Tuesday in case Parque runs into early difficulty. Parque hasn’t pitched against the Mariners this season, but has a 2-1 lifetime record and a 3.96 earned-run average against them.
“We’ve proved all year we’re the best team in the American League,” Parque said. “We’ve proved we can beat anybody at any given time. If someone goes down, we’ll just deal with it then.”
Playing the media card, Parque said the fourth estate has underestimated the Sox since the start of the season.
“It just seems like the media has put a damper on our season a little, saying we’re kind of stumbling into the playoffs,” he said. “The team hasn’t really been affected by that by any means. We’ve had to deal with it the entire year, being last on SportsCenter and all that. It really doesn’t matter anymore. We’re playing this game for one purpose–to go to the World Series and give Chicago a championship.”
The Sox may be playing with a piano-sized chip on their shoulders, but they don’t feel much pressure going into the series. To a national TV audience tuning in, they are a nameless, faceless collection of kids, other than two-time MVP Frank Thomas.
“It’s time to prove who we are and show everyone who we play for,” Magglio Ordonez said. “I don’t think anyone will pick us. They probably don’t think it will even go past three or four games. But if we just play like we do in the regular season, we’ll be OK.
“Nobody picked us this far in the first place. There’s no pressure on us.”
Carlos Lee, who led the Sox by hitting .356 against Seattle pitching this year, warned that the players can’t try to make names for themselves with postseason heroics. They have to continue being patient at the plate, moving runners along and being aggressive on the basepaths.
“You want to get people to know your team, but if you win, everyone knows you,” Lee said. “You don’t have to try to be the hero. Believe me, if we win this, everyone will know us.”
The key to the Sox’s chances will be their defensive play, which has improved in the second half but is still nowhere nearly as good as Seattle’s. The Mariners aren’t likely to beat themselves in the field, but that possibility always exists for the Sox.
“They’re going to be tight, they just can’t be afraid,” Thomas said of his youthful teammates. “It’s great to be nervous at this point, because it’s down to eight teams. Hopefully all the nervous energy is out by the third inning and we can get back to business. It’s a proud bunch of guys. We’re going to go out fighting.”
The Sox have been waiting for this moment for the last three months after opening a big lead in the division race and cruising. Now is the time to find out exactly what they’re made of.
“We feel we have a very special group of young men, who from spring training bought into the philosophy of team rather than individuals,” Manuel said. “We fought together. We lost together. We won together. We put together streaks. We’ve had a good year, a real good year.
“We’ve had some bumps in the road, but we’ve been able to overcome a lot of things. I’m excited about this opportunity for this group. This is probably as close a group of men as I’ve been around in all my years of professional baseball. Regardless of what happens, I think they’ll remember this year as a special year for a long time.”
More on the Internet
Follow the White Sox in the American League playoffs, including pre-game reports, audio, a load of team statistics and White Sox message boards at: www.ChicagoSports.com
