Chisox relievers Cotts, Jenks preserve Game 1 advantage
Their strikeouts plus Joe Crede's dives helped Chicago win, 5-3.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Yes, the Chicago White Sox do indeed have a bullpen and it helped them take the lead in the World Series.
Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks got out of an eighth-inning jam with three straight strikeouts, Joe Crede hit a go-ahead homer and saved two runs with a pair of diving stops and the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 5-3 Saturday night in Chicago's first World Series game since 1959.
"Winning the game the way we did, it's amazing, truly amazing," Chicago center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "It just gives you chills, goose bumps."
On a night when 43-year-old Roger Clemens hoped to become the oldest pitcher to win a World Series game, the Rocket hobbled off after just two innings, done in by the hamstring injury that has hampered him since early September.
Contreras wins
Winner Jose Contreras allowed the Astros three runs in seven-plus innings in their first World Series game, and tied a Series record by hitting three batters.
Chicago pitched four straight complete games in finishing off the Angels in the AL championship series, a feat not achieved in a postseason series since 1956. But when Willy Taveras hit a leadoff double off Contreras in the eighth with Houston trailing 4-3, manager Ozzie Guillen took him out after 81 pitches.
"They can't leave me out there. I'll lose the game," Contreras said through a translator. "We have guys out there that are fresher."
Cotts, a left-hander whose seven pitches and two outs was Chicago's only relief work against the Angels, came in and allowed a sharp single to left by Lance Berkman, a ball hit so hard that Taveras had to hold at third.
Cotts then struck out Morgan Ensberg and Mike Lamb. Then Guillen went to his bullpen again, raising both arms high and wide to signal for the burly rookie closer to face Jeff Bagwell.
"I don't want to embarrass the kid, but I want the big boy," Guillen said.
Jenks didn't mind.
"I think it's pretty funny," he said.
Bagwell retired
Throwing fastballs that reached 100 mph, the right-hander who began the year at Double-A struck out Jeff Bagwell on a 2-2 pitch.
"He chases fastballs up above the zone," Jenks said.
Jenks raised his right hand, pumping a fist as he came off the mound.
"I'm disappointed, I'm not crushed," Bagwell said. "There's a long way to go."
Scott Podsednik added an RBI triple in the eighth against Russ Springer to boost the margin, and Jenks retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out two and keeping the bullpen unscored upon in 10 postseason innings.
"Bagwell's a great hitter, he's a Hall of Famer, but Jenks is throwing 100 mph, you got to go with that," Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski said,
Crede had broken a 3-3 tie in the fourth with a solo homer on an 0-2 pitch off Clemens' replacement, 26-year-old rookie Wandy Rodriguez. As the ball went just over the glove of a leaping Taveras in left-center, Crede strolled around the bases, and Chicago was truly a toddlin' town.
"You got the nerves and butterflies going in and you know what, the game starts and you calm yourself down and realize you got a job to do, and that's go out and win a ballgame," Crede said.
Backhand grab
With a runner at third and one out in the sixth, Guillen brought his infield in, and Crede sprawled to make a backhand grab on Ensberg's hard grounder to third.
"They put the good wood on the ball, tough situations, and I was fortunate enough to get leather on it," Crede said.
With runners at the corners and two outs in the seventh, he made another diving backhand play on Craig Biggio, in his 18th season with Houston and appearing in his first World Series game.
"We hit some balls a foot one way or the other, might be a different ballgame," Houston manager Phil Garner said.
Jermaine Dye hit a solo first-inning homer for the White Sox, and Lamb hit a solo shot in the second for the Astros.
HOUSTONCHICAGO
abrhbiabrhbi
Biggio 2b4110Pdsdnk lf5021
Tveras cf3020Iguchi 2b5000
Brkmn lf4022Dye rf2111
Burke lf0000Knerko 1b4020
Ensbrg 3b4000CEvrtt dh3110
Lamb 1b4111Rwand cf3010
Bgwell dh2000Przyns c4211
Lane rf4000Crede 3b4111
Asmus c3010Uribe ss2011
AEvrtt ss4100
Totals32373Totals325105
Houston012000000--3
Chicago12010001x--5
E--AEverett (1). DP--Houston 2, Chicago 1. LOB--Houston 6, Chicago 9. 2B--Taveras 2 (2), Berkman (1), Uribe (1). 3B--Podsednik (1). HR--Lamb (1), Dye (1), Crede (1). SB--Burke (1), Podsednik (1), Pierzynski (1). S--Taveras, CEverett.
IPHRERBBSO
Houston
Clemens243301
WRdgz L,0-13 1-341151
Qualls1 2-300002
Springer121100
Chicago
Contreras W,1-0763302
Cotts2-310002
Jenks S,11 1-300003
Contreras pitched to 1 batter in the 8th. HBP--by Contreras (Ausmus), by Contreras (Bagwell 2). Umpires--Home, Joe West; First, Jeff Nelson; Second, Jerry Layne; Third, Derryl Cousins; Left, Gary Cederstrom; Right, Angel Hernandez. T--3:13. A--41,206.