World Series

Well, it looks like I was probably wrong about the White Sox. However, I believe that part of this has to do with the fact that no team in the majors was that good this season (a final dig at the White Sox...I can't help myself). I will give the Sox credit for having excellent starting pitching and a very solid bullpen, but I still will never totally respect them as a World Series champion.

Also, I just wanted to say how bad I felt for Ezequiel Astacio last night (Dan felt the same way for those curious). I know he's a major league pitcher (barely), but there was no way he should ever have been out on the mound in such an important situation. First, the Astros hitters blew the game too many times with runners on base before the 14th inning. Second, Garner never should have put him in. Clemens with a torn hamstring would have been better, Backe would have been better, I might have been better. This game was a must win and Garner should have known that someone who had a .301 opponents' batting average probably was not going to shut down the middle of the Sox order. By the way, he was lucky on that double play by Ensberg, or else the Astros might have lost 10-5! Third, Astacio was just way overmatched in this situation. It's one thing putting a rookie like Francisco Rodriguez (2002) in the game for an important World Series moment, but a bad rookie who had pitched for one inning in the past month. Bad move, Phil.

Finally, imagine the parlay on Scott Podsednik and Geoff Blum hitting back-to-back game-winning home runs in the late innings of games 2 and 3 of the World Series.