Chicago – Destiny isn’t halfway.
Either you believe in it or you don’t. The Chicago White Sox were convinced in spring training. Leave the curses to the Cubs, the crippling injuries to the Bears. This South Side baseball team appears bent on making history.
They lost their last World Series in 1959, and fixed their previous appearance in 1919. This one, too, seems preordained, a series of events and accomplishments conspiring to end the White Sox’s 88-year championship drought.
In persistent, chilling rain, Chicago stormed back for a 7-6 victory Sunday night against the Houston Astros on Scott Podsednik’s walk-off solo home run in Game 2, leaving the White Sox firmly in control of their fate with a 2-0 lead in the World Series.
“It’s the greatest moment of my life,” Podsednik said after reacquainting Astros closer Brad Lidge with despair. “No question.”
The victory, Chicago’s 14th in its past 15 games dating to the regular season, was yet another example that perhaps higher powers are at work. And not just the bats of Podsednik and Paul Konerko.
What else can it be but destiny when the White Sox’s closer blows a save, muting a grand slam by Konerko – and they still win?
“There was no way we were letting Bobby Jenks go home feeling bad about himself,” Konerko said. “We wanted to break their (hearts).”
What else can it be but destiny when a guy who hit exactly zero home runs during the regular season turns into Reggie Jackson?
Podsednik reinvented himself this winter after being shipped from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Carlos Lee. Podsednik focused on hitting for average, on reaching base more to become the catalytic force White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen wanted at the top of the lineup.
And he did what, exactly?
“Who hit the home run? Pod?” joked White Sox starting pitcher Mark Buehrle, who labored through seven innings, surrendering four runs. “He would have probably been the last guy I picked to win it. But that’s just another example of how things keep going our way.”
What else can it be but destiny when plate umpire Jeff Nelson joins Doug Eddings and Phil Cuzzi in the forgettable performances by the Blue Man Group?
With two runners on in the bottom of the seventh and Jermaine Dye facing a full count, pitcher Dan Wheeler delivered a high, inside fastball. Dye attempted to check his swing, sending the ball spinning toward the Astros’ dugout. Nelson ruled the ball hit Dye, not his bat, awarding him first base.
“I am not going to try and lie. You guys saw the replay; it obviously got the bat,” Dye said. “I think the catcher’s glove might have blocked (Nelson) a bit. People make mistakes. Obviously we caught a break.”
Astros manager Phil Garner felt like he caught a steel-toed boot to the gut. He told Nelson the call was wrong, even asked him to check the ball for a scuff mark.
“But,” he lamented, “it was already gone.”
Seconds later, so was Chad Qualls’ first pitch, Konerko launching the 18th grand slam in World Series history, shoving the White Sox ahead 6-4. Jenks couldn’t secure the lead, tagged for a two-run single by Astros pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino. Moments before, Podsednik allowed himself to dream, wondering “what it would feel like to be Paulie right now.”
In the ninth, he found out. He deposited Lidge’s 2-1 fastball into the right-field seats.
It was a tough break for Lidge, “but what are you going to do?” said the Cherry Creek High School alum. “I’m not going to change my approach. I am frustrated by it, of course. But I’m not changing a darn thing. I’m ready to get back out there as soon as possible. And if they do it again, I’ll tip my hat.”
Sometimes that’s all you can do with destiny.
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
