Anaheim, Calif. – Complete annihilation.
It’s an apt description of what Chicago White Sox starting pitchers have done to the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series.
In Game 4 on Saturday night, White Sox starter Freddy Garcia threw a complete-game, six-hitter in Chicago’s 8-2 rout of the Angels. It was the third complete-game victory in a row for a White Sox pitcher.
“From the get-go, Freddy was aggressive,” Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He was attacking the strike zone, and when Freddy does that, he’s going to be very effective.”
The White Sox became the first team since the 1973 New York Mets to hurl three consecutive complete games in the same postseason. The Mets’ trio of Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack and Jerry Koosman did it against Cincinnati in the 1973 NLCS. Seaver, however, was a 2-1 loser in Game 1.
Garcia’s gem came on the heels of Mark Buehrle’s complete-game victory in Game 2 and Jon Garland’s nine-inning masterpiece in Game 3.
Catcher A.J. Pierzynski, the man on the receiving end for all three pitchers, provided a simple explanation.
“Strike one,” said Pierzynski, who hit a solo homer in the fourth to put Chicago ahead 5-1. “Our guys are hitting strike one and getting ahead. And they are using all of their pitches.”
Saturday’s victory gave the White Sox a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. If they beat the Angels in Game 5 tonight, the White Sox will return to the World Series for the first time since the “Go-Go Sox” of 1959. The White Sox have not won a World Series since 1917.
Garcia became a first-time father Wednesday in Chicago when his wife, Glendys, gave birth to a daughter, Sophia.
That event, he said, was a huge thrill. He treated Saturday’s doings like just another day at the ballpark.
“I went out there, I was strong, threw a lot of strikes and made good pitches,” he said.
Angels cleanup hitter Garret Anderson gave Garcia, as well as the other White Sox starters, a lot of credit.
“It’s very obvious they are pitching well,” he said. “They’re not making mistakes and they’re pitching on the corners.”
This game was over early when Angels rookie starter Ervin Santana walked Scott Podsednik to open the game, hit the next batter, Tadahito Iguchi, and then watched White Sox cleanup hitter Paul Konerko’s three-run homer sail over the left-center field wall to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.
Konerko’s blast, his second of the ALCS and third of the playoffs, turned out to be plenty, because the Angels can’t hit and their famed Rally Monkey is on the verge of extinction. The Angles are batting .177 (22-for-124) in the ALCS, with a grand total of six extra-base hits. Slugger Vladimir Guerrero is 1-for-16 (.062) with one RBI and leadoff man Chone Figgins is 1-for-14 (.071). It’s as if a rolling blackout has hit the Los Angeles lineup.
Yet Los Angeles hitting coach Mickey Hatcher was talking brave Saturday night, even as his team was on the edge of elimination.
“I think our guys are grinding out there, but we need some magic to happen,” Hatcher said. “We haven’t had very many good calls and we are battling with that. We haven’t really had a break yet, but that could happen tomorrow. It just takes one game to change the tide and get yourself going.”
That’s why Guillen wants his team to take care of business tonight.
“I would say, ‘Don’t let the monster wake up,”‘ Guillen said. “Tomorrow’s a big game, maybe the biggest game we’ve played all year.”
Staff writer Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-820-5459 or at psaunders@denverpost.com.
