WHITE SOX SWEEP SERIES
We're Number Two!!!

From the Houston Chronicle:

A crowd of 42,936 saw Series Most Valuable Player Jermaine Dye drive in the winning run off reliever Brad Lidge, the losing pitcher in two of the Astros' four defeats, with a two-out single in the eighth inning. Backe shut out the White Sox for seven innings, and he still couldn't save the Astros from becoming the first team to get swept in its Series debut.

''A lot of these games could have gone either way," said Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who waited 18 seasons to get to his first World Series. ''We just couldn't catch a break. I think it's fate."

Astros manager Phil Garner couldn't have asked for more from Backe, a Galveston native.

Or less from the Astros' offense.

One night after a 14-inning Game 3 defeat that lasted a Series-record five hours and 41 minutes, the Astros' offense proved to be a bluff. The Astros went hitless in 11 Game 4 at-bats with runners in scoring position, striking out five times. In the final 19 innings of the Series, the Astros' lineup produced one run on six hits.

Click here for the rest.

I was talking to my Dad last night before the game started. It was his birthday yesterday, and after wishing him the best, I told him that I was sorry that it was starting to look like the 'Stros were going to blow it--he's been a fan since before they were called the Astros back in the 60s. I also told him I was kind of mad a Lidge, the relief pitcher who seems to keep losing playoff games for Houston. My father had a very uplifting response: it's wonderful that they made it there at all, and even though Lidge has been choking big time lately, he's part of the reason that they got there. Of course, he was quite right. It is wonderful that the Astros won the National League pennant. It is wonderful that they finally made it to the World Series. And they played well. Even though they were swept, they didn't fall over and die; it's just that the Sox played better. The Astros made them earn their championship.

For this expatriated Houstonian, that's something worth celebrating. Number two ain't so bad at all.

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