Web posted
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Red Sox finished; Black Sox next?
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON (AP) -- The White Sox swept away the champion Red Sox, and now they'll try to purge the memory of the notorious Black Sox.
Orlando Hernandez delivered a vintage performance out of the bullpen and Paul Konerko hit a tiebreaking homer as Chicago beat Boston 5-3 Friday to sweep the defending World Series champs out of the playoffs and win a postseason series for the first time since Shoeless Joe Jackson's team won it all way back in 1917.
Two years later, some of Jackson's ''Black Sox'' took payoffs from gamblers to throw the Series. Eight men were out, banned from baseball for life, and every White Sox player since has lingered under a longer but lesser-known curse than the one the Red Sox busted when they ended their 86-year drought last season.
Boston had hoped for its first repeat titles since 1915-16, but for the second time in three years its season ended thanks to a Tim Wakefield knuckleball that went over a left-field wall.
The Red Sox cut it to 4-3 when Manny Ramirez led off the sixth with his second homer of the game, then they loaded the bases -- still with none out. But Hernandez got pinch-hitter Jason Varitek and Game 2 goat Tony Graffanino to pop up to the infield, then Johnny Damon struck out on a check swing to end the inning.
Graffanino, whose error before Tadahito Iguchi's three-run homer was the difference in a 5-4 loss on Wednesday night, fouled off four pitches with two strikes; Damon also worked the count full, but Hernandez got him on a pitch in the dirt.
El Duque shut out the Red Sox on one hit over three innings, and Juan Uribe's suicide squeeze made it 5-3 in the ninth. Rookie closer Bobby Jenks got three outs to save it for winner Freddy Garcia.
Before Friday, the Red Sox had won eight of their last nine games over the past two seasons when facing elimination.
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