The White Sox couldn’t have accomplished any more on their seven-game trip to Cleveland and New York if they dished out several noogies to Drew Carey and Woody Allen.
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The team with the best record in baseball continued its unimpeded flight through hyperspace on Sunday, bashing the world champion Yankees 17-4 to complete a perfect 7-0 road swing.
“In my time here, I haven’t witnessed anything quite like this trip,” Sox manager Jerry Manuel said. “Especially against the teams we’ve done it against. The guys really stepped it up. They went to another level on this trip.”
The seven-game sweep was only the fourth perfect trip of six or more games in Sox history, following 6-0 trips in 1982 and ’90, and an 11-0 trip in ’51.
The victory was the 13th in the last 14 games for the Sox, who remained 7 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland, which comes to Comiskey Park on Monday for the start of another important four-game series.
Not only did the Sox sweep the Yanks, they outscored them 42-17 and never let up, even after scoring nine runs in the first inning. Jose Valentin’s grand slam off Orlando Hernandez (6-6) sealed the outcome in the inning, while Carlos Lee also added four RBIs and Mark Johnson and Chris Singleton drove in three runs apiece. Jim Parque (7-2) shut out the Yankees through five innings before tiring in the sixth. He allowed four runs in six innings for his fourth straight victory.
After the game, Manuel addressed his players, telling them their good work is appreciated.
In one amazing stretch of baseball, the White Sox have seemingly made believers out of anyone who doubted they had the right stuff. The Sox’s seven-game win streak is their longest of the season, and their 11-game road win streak is the longest since June 13-July 15, 1990. The four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium was their first since July 12-15, 1990.
That ’90 Sox team improved by 25 games over the previous year and set a standard of excellence on the South Side that carried on until the 1994 players’ strike ended what most considered the dream season. With a 44-24 record, the 2000 Sox are 29 games better than last year’s team, going from nine games under .500 to 20 games over.
Yankees great Yogi Berra once said: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” But on Sunday, it was almost over before it even began. After Ray Durham grounded out to lead off the first, Hernandez fell apart like a balsa wood chair underneath Shaquille O’Neal.
The next six Sox hitters reached, sending them to a 5-0 lead before most Yankees fans had exited the parking lot.
Hernandez soon gave up the grand slam to Valentin on a 3-2 pitch, and was mercifully removed after yielding nine runs and retiring only two batters.
Instead of coasting home, the Sox continued to pile it on against the top-ranked bullpen in baseball, scoring three more in the second and four in the fifth to make it 16-0.
“That speaks volumes for this young club,” Manuel said. “But it’s a very long year and we can’t rest at this time.”
Are the Sox suddenly feeling invincible?
“I don’t think so,” Parque said. “Everybody in this clubhouse, including Jerry [Manuel], knows that at any given time it can crumble. But that’s only if you let it crumble.
“That’s not going to happen. Guys are too focused, and they’re focused in the right ways–not on themselves, but on winning the game. That’s the key to why we’re playing well, why we’re putting up big numbers, why we’re close as a team.”