HOUSTON, 28 October 2005 — Jermaine Dye’s late run-scoring single was enough to give the Chicago White Sox a 1-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday and a first World Series title in 88 years with a four-game sweep.
The outfielder’s eighth-inning hit, a ground ball through the middle off Houston reliever Brad Lidge, drove in Willie Harris from third to break a scoreless tie.
As well as the belting the championship-winning hit, Dye earned Most Valuable Player honors for the series.
“It means a lot, not only to us in the clubhouse but to the organization, to the fans and to the city. It’s just a great feeling,” said Dye, who went three-for-four in the game.
The starting pitchers, considered the fourth-best options from two talented starting rotations, turned in the finest mound duel of the series.
Houston’s Brandon Backe and Chicago’s Freddy Garcia, a former Astros prospect who earned the win, each struck out seven batters and yielded no runs in seven innings.
It was the first time both starters in a World Series game took shutouts through seven innings since 1991.
Lidge, who entered in the eighth inning, allowed a single to leadoff pinch hitter Willie Harris.
Harris advanced to second on a bunt and to third on a ground ball when Dye strolled to the plate.
“I was looking for a slider and just trying not to do too much with it,” Dye said. “I just tried to hit it hard somewhere and it found a hole up the middle.” White Sox closer Bobby Jenks came on on the ninth and allowed a bloop hit to Jason Lane before retiring the next three batters.
Orlando Palmeiro’s groundout to shortstop ended the game and began a mass celebration on the infield.
The joy was echoed in the grandstands with hundreds of White Sox fans gathering in the box seats at Minute Maid Park yelling “Thank you White Sox” well beyond midnight.
The White Sox and their more popular cross-town counterparts, the Chicago Cubs, together had been the standard bearers for World Series futility.
The Cubs are still waiting to end their run, 97 years after last winning it in 1908.
“With the birth of my kids, I think this is the most wonderful day of my life,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who played shortstop for the team for the first 13 years of his playing career.
The White Sox had not appeared in a Fall Classic since 1959 and last won the title in 1917.
The also appeared in 1919 but lost to the Cincinnati Reds in the infamous “Black Sox” scandal where eight players were accused of intentionally playing poorly in exchange for payoffs from gamblers.
The Astros finished the 44-year-old franchise’s first World Series by going scoreless in their final 15 innings as they became the 19th team to suffer a championship sweep.
Houston began the year 15-30 but was the best team in baseball since late May because of its standout starting pitching, led by Andy Pettitte, Roy Oswalt and 43-year-old future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens.
Lesser-known Backe out-pitched all of them, although none could muster a win.
“Everybody in our clubhouse had something to do with us getting here and it’s a pretty good story, a doggone good story,” Houston manager Phil Garner said.
“I’m proud of those guys.” Chicago’s victory also marked the second straight year that a lengthy World Series drought ended with a sweep. Last autumn, the Boston Red Sox ended an 85-year run of futility against the St. Louis Cardinals.
