Sox Move Into The Fall Classic For First Time Since 1959

 Joe Crede hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning to score Aaron Rowand.

On Sunday night, the White Sox finished off the Angels 6-3 in the ALCS on solid pitching by Jose Contreras, clutch hitting and great defense.  Joe Crede, who went 2 for 3, hit a solo homerun in the 7th inning to tie the game at 3-3, then Crede gave the Sox the lead for good in the 8th inning on an infield single that scored Aaron Rowand from second on smart baserunning.    ALCS MVP Paul Konerko doubled home Tadahito Iguchi and Rowand had a sacrifice fly to finish the scoring in the 9th. 

 Contreras was still pitching 95 mph in the fifth inning. 

It was the fourth straight complete game for the White Sox.  Contreras gave up just three runs on five hits to give the Sox their first four straight complete games since September of 1974.  Angels All-Star Vladimir Guererro again went 0-4 to take his ALCS batting average to .050 on 1-21 hitting.  The Sox also had a nice ump mistake overturned which helped out again.  A.J. Pierzynski hit a dribbler to Angels pitcher Kelvim Escobar.  Escobar ran and tagged Pierzynski with his glove, but the ball was in his other hand.  A.J. was called out but the ump's changed the call and correctly put Pierzynski on first.  Crede came up to bat next to face Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez who gave up the single up the middle to score Rowand and give the Sox the lead they wouldn't relinquish 4-3.

 The White Sox celebrate after their Game 5 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim takes them into the World Series.

In the ALCS, the Sox starting pitcher's went 44 1/3 innings out of 45 total innings.  In the four wins, Games 2-5 in the ALCS, the Mark Buerhle, Jon Garland, Contreras and Freddy Garcia foursome gave up a total of 20 hits and 8 runs.  Completely amazing.  The only pitcher to be used out of the bullpen for the Sox was Neal Cotts.  The Belleville, Illinois native Cotts finished out the top of the 9th getting the last two outs on seven pitches in the 3-2 Game 1 loss.

Just think about that.  How incredible is it that the Sox only had to use one pitcher out of the bullpen.  And that one pitcher only was needed for two outs in a loss.  Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had faith in all four starting pitchers letting them take the ball in the 9th to finish up each game instead of using his bullpen. 

World Series previews coming all this week.  Game 1 will be Saturday night in Chicago at US Cellular Arena.  The NLCS between the Astros and Cardinals is 3-1 Astros going into Game 5 on Monday night in Houston. 

Great article on ESPN.com here.  By the way, a lot of naysayers along the way said the Sox couldn't make it to the World Series without trading for a big bat (Ken Griffey) or another top-notch starter (AJ Burnett).  What do you say now?