1983 White Sox suffer tough loss to 1970 Orioles in Dream Bracket
It took a full seven games, but the 1983 White Sox were eliminated in the second round of MLB Dream Bracket 2, falling to the 1970 Baltimore Orioles.
The series was a back-and-forth affair, with the Winning Ugly White Sox having a few very good chances to move on, but ultimately coming up just short.
Game 1 was a glorious comeback win for the Pale Hose, as they trailed 6-3 heading into the ninth inning, before blasting Pete Richert for five runs to take the early series edge. Carlton Fisk was the main man, knocking out a pair of homers, the latter of which was the massive grand slam blow to Richert in the ninth.
Game 2 was revenge for the O's, who plastered the Sox to the tune of 19-1, with seven different pitchers giving up runs for the ChiSox. However, that momentum didn't roll over to Game 3, thankfully, with the White Sox taking their first home game of the series, 5-3. Fisk once again left the yard, and Floyd Bannister and the pen got things done on the mound.
Once again the O's had the response necessary, though, with another offensive outburst to take Game 4. This one was much closer though, with the final score coming in at 12-7, but with the White Sox trailing by only one until the top of the eighth inning when Paul Blair hit his third homer of the game (!) to put some space between the two.
In Game 5, the White Sox put themselves in great position to move on in the tournament, using their final home game to go ahead in the series, 3-2, thanks to a 7-0 shutout win. Harold Baines got it done with the stick, while LaMarr Hoyt threw all nine frames on the mound.
Unfortunately, it would be back-to-back heartbreak in Games 6 and 7, a pair of 5-4 wins for the Orioles. In Game 6, it was a Frank Robinson long ball in the seventh that won the game, while four runs in the bottom of the seventh, all off Juan Agosto, proved the difference in Game 7. The White Sox scored one each in the seventh, eighth, and ninth, but fell one run short in the win-or-go-home final game of their Dream Bracket run.
MLB.com has the video highlights of Game 7, if you're into that kind of thing ...
The crosstown team suffered the same fate as the White Sox, going 1-2 overall in Dream Bracket series. The two finalists of Dream Bracket 2 are the 2001 Seattle Mariners vs. the 1986 New York Mets (who dispatched the Big Red Machine in five games!), with the series results announced on June 5.
Jim Turvey is a baseball diehard, who was born and raised in Vermont, attended the University of Vermont and is currently attaining an MBA at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, N.J. He is a baseball nomad, having been raised by one Yankee fan and one Red Sox fan (I know), and he is first and foremost a lover of the history and statistics of the sport.