King Kaufman's Sports Daily

"Smallball": Overused word, overused strategy, as White Sox show again in Game 1 loss to Angels.

Oct 12, 2005 | One game into the American League Championship Series and I'm already sick of the word "smallball."

The Los Angeles Angels, using such smallball tactics as Garret Anderson's smallball into the left-field bleachers, beat the Chicago White Sox at their own smallball game 3-2 Tuesday night in the opener of the American League Championship Series.

The Angels did use smallball to score their second and third runs, which proved to be decisive, in the third smallball. I mean inning. After singles by Steve Finley and Adam Kennedy, Chone Figgins bunted the runners to second and third with one out.

Both men scored on infield grounders. Orlando Cabrera beat out his roller to third when third baseman Joe Crede hesitated, thinking he could get Finley at home even though Finley was racing down the line in front of him and Crede clearly had no chance.

Then Vladimir Guerrero hit a chopper back to pitcher Jose Contreras, who turned in a fine start. Contreras threw to second to start a double play. The Sox got the out there -- what should have been the third out of the inning -- but second baseman Tadahito Iguchi was thrown off by Cabrera's hard slide and threw away the relay, Kennedy scoring.

So yeah, the Angels won partly with smallball, with bunting and hard base running. Or another way to put it would be that they won partly because of Chicago's lapses on defense, a key element of smallball, along with pitching, speed and aggressiveness on the bases.

One of the things smallball does, of course, is put pressure on the defense. Fair enough.

But for all the paroxysms of orgasmic wonder smallball tends to send the commentariat into, for all the tiny trembling frissons of joy over stolen bases and moving the runner over and keeping the defense on its heels, what smallball does a lot of is cost the offense runs. That's what it did for the White Sox Tuesday, as it has for them all year.

What if the White Sox still had five outs to go? What if it were still one out in the eighth? Because that's at least as many outs as the Sox gave away in Game 1.

In the fifth inning, Scott Podsednik, who enjoys hunting, fishing and getting thrown out stealing at second, got thrown out stealing at second when the Angels, not particularly rattled by the running game, pitched out. In the sixth, Jermaine Dye, who hit 31 home runs this season and is not slumping, tried to bunt his way aboard. He popped out to pitcher Paul Byrd, who also pitched well.

In the seventh, Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski got thrown out stealing, erroneously thinking the hit-and-run was on. In the eighth, with Juan Uribe on first and no one out, Podsednik gave up two strikes trying to bunt, then struck out.

In the ninth, with pinch runner Pablo Ozuna at first and no one out, Uribe bunted into a force play.

Next Page: The White Sox should score more than they do. Plus: Astros vs. Cardinals in NLCS

• View blog reactions