Just call him Joe Clutch.
White Sox third baseman Joe Crede answered the call again in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series just as he had in Game 2, coming up with the go-ahead RBI in the Sox’s pennant-clinching 6-3 victory.
Crede’s two-out single in the eighth inning off Francisco Rodriguez brought home Aaron Rowand to give the Sox a 4-3 lead after Crede had tied the game with a solo home run off Kelvim Escobar in the seventh.
“Joe-Joe, sometimes it looks like he doesn’t have a pulse out there,” first baseman Paul Konerko said. “That comes up big in big situations, because he doesn’t get amped up, he doesn’t try to overdo anything. He just stays within himself, and I’m just so happy for the guy.
“He’s taken a lot of heat the last couple of years, and even during this season–but, man, he has been huge.”
Though Crede’s game-winning double in the ninth inning of Game 2 was obscured by the controversial call on A.J. Pierzynski’s strikeout preceding his at-bat, there was no hiding his heroics Sunday.
Amazingly, his big hit followed another controversial call on Pierzynski, who reached after Escobar tagged him with his mitt while holding the ball in the other hand.
“Par for the course,” Pierzynski said. “What else can you expect? It had to be me. I was the only person that could happen to, and it worked out for us again.”
After the initial out call was overruled, leaving Pierzynski on first and Rowand on second, the closer known as K-Rod was called on to face Crede. With a 1-2 count, Rodriguez threw a nasty curve that broke late but appeared to be in the zone.
Plate umpire Ed Rapuano ruled the pitch was high, igniting a crescendo of boos.
After a low fastball by Rodriguez ran the count to 3-2, Crede hit a bouncer up the middle that second baseman Adam Kennedy corralled before it went into center field.
Rowand never stopped running, easily beating Kennedy’s throw home.
Was Crede thinking about the unbelievable coincidence taking place in Anaheim? How could he be following another patented Pierzynski moment?
“That was definitely going through my mind,” Crede said. “I said, `Here we go again.’ But you know what? It was the right call. A.J. did the right thing again. I was just lucky to be in a situation where I could capitalize on it again.”
It was really nothing new for Crede. He hit .371 in the final month of the season and smacked a game-winning home run in the 10th inning Sept. 20 against Cleveland at U.S. Cellular Field that gave the Sox the opener of a crucial series, extending their Central Division lead to 3 1/2 games. It was a shot of adrenaline for a Sox team that had lost eight of its previous 11 games.
“Crede deserves as much credit as anybody in this clubhouse,” Pierzynski said.
Crede credited everyone but himself, saying he was fortunate to be in the situations he was put in during Games 2 and 5.
“That’s the thing about this game,” he said. “Being in the right spot at the right time.”
Joe Clutch was certainly in the right place at the right time Sunday.
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psullivan@tribune.com
