Managing just fine

By Eric Wilbur

October 5, 2005

2 minutes to read

As White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen made his way past the dreary hallway with the atmosphere of a parking garage that separated his rocking clubhouse with the emptying clubhouse suites of Chicago’s well-endowed fans, a single shout could be heard as the manager entered his postgame press conference.

“Ozzie, thank you.”

Indeed. It was a message also relayed by the hundreds who stuck around at US Cellular to hear their manager speak glowingly about a team that is now up 2-0 on the Red Sox in their best-of-five division series, which shifts to Fenway Park Friday for Game 3.

And Red Sox fans? Well, there’s a lot of thanks for nothing going around tonight.

With a runner on first, Tony Graffanino misplayed a possible inning-ending double play ball in the fifth, when he came up empty going down for a ground ball that had already passed his glove. And it cost the Red Sox and David Wells when Tadahito Iguchi hit a three-run home run to put the White Sox ahead for good, 5-4.

“I thought he tried to be a little too quick,” manager Terry Francona said. “He was trying to make a reasonable chance.

“When you give them extra outs, there’s always a possibility of those things happening. We gave them an extra opportunity and they made us pay for it.”

Francona described the pitch to Iguchi as a breaking ball in the middle part of the plate, not down enough in the zone. And Iguchi laced it, making a winner of Mark Buehrle, who pitched in a 4-0 hole into the fifth inning.

“I think he pitched well the whole game,” Francona said of the White Sox starter. “You try to take what he gives you. You pull the ball and you’ve got a chance not only to make one out, but two outs.”

— Manny Ramirez enjoyed a 1 for 3, two RBI night and has hit safely in 18 of his last 19 playoff games. The sole game being yesterday’s Game 1.

— Iguchi became just the second Japanese player (Hideki Matsui) to homer in a postseason game. In stark contrast to the enormous horde of Japanese media members that follow the Yankee outfielder across the country, there are very few Japanese reporters following Iguchi’s every move.

— American League teams are 7-4 when taking a 2-0 lead in the ALDS. Two of those four are due to Red Sox comebacks, against Oakland in 2003, and Cleveland in 1999.

— That *(if necessary) on your Game 4 ticket has taken on a little more meaning now, no?