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White Sox Unable To Capitalize

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The Chicago White Sox had an early opportunity to blow things open Friday night. Instead, they find themselves in a deep hole.

With Friday's 6-2 loss to the Rays, Chicago fell behind 2-0 in the best-of-five American League Division Series, with Game 3 scheduled at U.S. Cellular Field for Sunday afternoon.

Only three teams in ALDS history since the league expanded the postseason to include four teams in 1995 have rallied from a two-game deficit to win a best-of-five series - the 2001 New York Yankees against Oakland, and the 1999 and 2003 Boston Red Sox against Cleveland and Oakland, respectively.

In major-league history, of the 54 teams that have fallen behind 2-0 in a best-of-five series. only seven rallied to win. And of the 32 teams in LDS history that have fallen behind 2-0, 21 of them have been swept.

"We're against the wall, we've got to fight like a cat," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Now it's a must-win game, now it is."

Chicago certainly had its chances in Game 2, especially in the first inning as Rays starter Scott Kazmir struggled with his location. Orlando Cabrera led off by taking a pitch off his knee while Nick Swisher followed with a walk. Jermaine Dye had a bloop single to left to load the bases with none out with two of the White Sox's biggest hitters - Paul Konerko and Jim Thome - coming up.

But Konerko popped up to second for the first out. Thome singled to drive in Cabrera and Alexei Ramirez's sacrifice fly made it 2-0. A.J. Pierzynski had an infield single to reload the bases, but Juan Uribe struck out to end the inning. Kazmir, who threw 37 pitches in the first inning, had been let off the hook.

"We could have busted it open right there," Konerko said. "You have games like that happen during the regular season, where you can just kind of put it behind you and move on. But obviously this is a different situation, everything is under the microscope in the playoffs."

Chicago threatened again in the second, fourth and sixth innings, but came up empty each time.

In the seventh, the White Sox put two on with none out against reliever Grant Balfour, but J.P. Howell entered the game and retired Thome, Ramirez and Pierzynski in order to hold a one-run lead.

The White Sox stranded 12 runners and were 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Two of those hits came in the first inning.

"It's White Sox baseball," Guillen said. "You know, we have 12 hits, we got two runs, and those two runs were in the first inning. We got Kazmir against the ropes and we let him go. We left 12 people on base. You're not going to win that many games like that. The opportunities were there and we couldn't get it done."

"We've been in this situation before," Dye said. "We know exactly what we have to do, we have to get on a roll or we go home."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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