2,500 Games Later...It's Another Sox!

Some game and series esoterica:

• Chicago surpassed Houston in every major offensive stat in the series...except walks! That's pretty weird, because...
  

• As mentioned in my last post, the Chicago pitching staff has been extremely frugal with free passes, yielding a mere 13 in their first 10 playoff games, up to WS Game 2. So how unbelievable is it that in their 11th they set the record for most walks in a World Series game, giving up 12?? I don't have data for 2005 yet, but they'd only walked 12 or more three times in their previous 1,400 games dating back to 1996!
  

• Houston struck out 36 times in 143 at-bats...that's a K every four at-bats! For a player, that would be a 150-whiff pace, meaning Chicago pitching made all Houston hitters into Preston Wilson. During the season, they averaged one every 5.3 AB, sixth in the NL.

• Check out the White Sox relievers' crazy line for Games 3 and 4. It's reminiscent of an AJ Burnett masterpiece.

   
   
  IP
   
   H
   
   R
   
  ER
   
  BB
   
  SO
   
  HB
  HR
    
  ERA
   
   
    
  9.0
   
  2
   
  1
   
  1
   
  11
   
  10
   
  2
  0
    
  1.00
   

  Nine of the 11 pitchers did not allow a hit. For the series, Chicago's relievers gave up a hit in only four of their 16 appearances. Only five did not allow a baserunner, though.
  

• The Sox only scored six more runs than the 'Stros. I haven't checked it out, but I that's got to be the record--or just off it--for the smallest margin in a four-game sweep. It's reminiscent of the 2000 Series, when all five games were one- or two-run games.
  

• After a season of no home runs and one triple in 129 games, Scott Podsednik had three three-baggers and two homers in 12 post-season games. In fact, he had three total in just the four-game World Series! After getting to actually watch him drive the ball into the right-centerfield gap and sprint around the bases, how the heck did he not hit a triple until September??

• The White Sox had two batters, Geoff Blum and Willie Harris, finish with a 1.000 average. Blum also had a 5.000 OPS!