Swinging both arms and using a windup and overhand delivery that would have fit in the last time the White Sox played for the American League pennant in 1959, Angels starter Paul Byrd turned back the clock to last month for Sox batters.
For the first time since an eight-game winning streak began Sept. 28 in Detroit, Sox hitters looked baffled in a 3-2 loss in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
Byrd mixed enough off-speed pitches with a sinking curveball to finesse a Sox lineup that had shown so much force in the postseason.
The heart of the order–Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko and Carl Everett–managed just Everett’s one single in nine at-bats against Byrd.
“That was typical Paul Byrd,” Dye said. “You think you’re right on his pitches, and you just miss them.”
Byrd looked nothing like the guy who feebly allowed seven hits and four earned runs in 3 2/3 innings in his last outing in the American League Division Series against the Yankees.
The right-hander, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2003, improved to 4-0 lifetime at U.S. Cellular Field.
“The fact that [manager] Mike [Scioscia] gave me the ball, trusted me with the ball after I had a shaky outing with New York, has done loads for my confidence,” Byrd said.
It showed. Take away a Joe Crede home run in the third inning and the Sox bats slumbered against a pitcher whose sleep deprivation was no factor–for him or his teammates.
“He did a good job getting ahead of us by throwing a lot of strikes,” Crede said. “The ball was moving a lot, and he kept us off balance.”
Making his third career postseason appearance but first for the Angels since signing a one-year, $4.5 million contract last winter, Byrd gave up two runs and five hits in six efficient innings with one strikeout, one walk and one hit batsman.
Of Byrd’s 73 pitches, 46 were strikes.
Such control allowed Byrd to confound the Sox.
Dye, frustrated by a postseason slump that Byrd exacerbated, even tried to bunt his way on base to start the sixth inning of a one-run game.
A No. 3 hitter reducing his swing to a bunt when a home run would tie the game is like a warrior laying down his sword.
“I was just trying to get something going,” Dye said. “We hadn’t swung too well off him. It was a good idea. It just didn’t work.”
Not much did against a savvy 34-year-old veteran working on three days’ rest.
The Sox stranded three runners against Byrd and six overall.
“We hit a lot of balls hard that had chances but couldn’t get a big hit,” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.
“We had [Konerko] up there with runners on base, and they made pitches. Give them a lot of credit.”
