2005 Baseball Postseason, Volume III: The World Series

Good for the Astros. They shook off the bad loss and were able to come through the next game like nothing ever happened. And the Cardinals...they just plain got shut down.

The White Sox and the Astros. This will likely be the lowest rated Series in some time, despite the two towns involved being among the largest in the nation, and with both teams not having reached the championship, in the case of the Sox, since 1959, or in the case of the Astros, ever.

The Astros are the 5th Wild Card team in 4 years to play in the World Series. That's nails scratching a blackboard in many people's heads. The 2002 Series was played by 2 Wild Card teams, an Angels win over the Giants. The 2003 Marlins beat the Yankees. The 2004 Red Sox beat the Cardinals. Notice a theme?

Houston and Chicago have never played against each other in a championship of any sort. Houston has no hockey team, the Rockets won 2 NBA championships in the gap where Michael Jordan had left the Bulls after their first 3 championships, and the Astros, in addition to never being in a Series did not exist before the White Sox last went to one. And of course, the expansion Colt .45s, in the 1962-1964 existence of their name before they became the Astros, were not playoff contenders.

Expect a truly pitching-rich Series, which means every game will be 8-7 and 11-6. Both teams got here with dominant starting pitching and better-than-average hitting. These teams did not face each other in interleague play.

I like the White Sox here because of their pitching. Their pitching is better than the Cardinals', whose only starter that really emerged as a true stopper was Chris Carpenter. Houston struggled to score runs, but it was enough with their own pitching. This is going to be a tough, tough Series, and with games being so close, errors are going to have be kept down. Another reason to like the Sox is that they've been resting all week while the Astros have played a fairly emotionally-draining NLCS. Rested teams are usually not rusty, as many pundits like to say is possible.

White Sox, 4-2