From Gerry Fraley's Saturday column on the World Series...
"There will be an abundance of one-run games decided by which team bunts better."
Well, thusfar, there have been three games. All have been high-scoring, and all have been close, although only one has been a one-run game.
Of course, predictably, none of them have had anything to do with who has bunted better. The ChiSox, in fact, have had only one sacrifice the whole series, and the biggest bunt story of the World Series has been Phil Garner not having Willy Tavares bunt with Chris Burke on third and one out in the 9th last night.
No, the games have been decided by which team has hit home runs.
Joe Crede's homer gave Chicago the win in game 1.
Paul Konerko's grand slam gave Chicago the lead in game 2, and Scott Podsednik's blast won the game for them.
In the 5 run 5th inning against Oswalt yesterday, Joe Crede started things off with a homer, and none of the runs were the product of "small ball." And Geoff Blum won the game for Chicago with a home run in the 14th.
As usual, Fraley has been proven dead wrong. The story of this World Series hasn't been low-scoring games, sacrifice bunts, and playing the game the "right way." It has been about hitting homers and posting big innings. It has been about a mediocre ChiSox offense putting up a lot of runs against an Astro team that features one of the best playoff rotations in baseball history, and one of the best closers in the game.
Let's see how long it takes for him to print a retraction...