Chicago White Sox: Looking at the 2005 World Series rotation

The Chicago White Sox had a brilliant pitching rotation in 2005. Everybody put their best foot forward and were brilliant in the run to the World Series.

The Chicago White Sox saw everything come together in 2005. It was the greatest year in the history of the franchise. They had lots of great hitters like Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski, and Scott Podsednik amongst others that scored lots of runs. They had a very good rotation to supplement that hitting which is the biggest key to this team’s success that year.

They had five good starters in the regular season but four of them really stepped up in the playoffs. They had four guys who were able to go out there and do exactly what was needed to be done to win the World Series. The bullpen had plenty of great arms led by closer Bobby Jenks. Their lives were made even easier thanks to the dominant play of the four starting pitchers in the rotation.

If there is anything that the current White Sox can learn from that 2005 team is that as good as your lineup is, it doesn’t matter unless you have the pitching to supplement that good lineup. Baseball is the ultimate team game that needs all of its parts going strong and that is exactly what happened to the White Sox that year.

All of the pitchers coming together to get it done is perhaps the biggest key to this team getting over the hump to end the World Series drought. The four guys who got it done for Chicago should be remembered fondly in this city forever. These are the four studs that we have to thank for how brilliant they were:

Mark Buehrle is one of the greatest players in the history of the Chicago White Sox. He was the ace of the staff for a very long time. 2005 was no exception.  He was the starter that people will always remember the most from that run. He started a game in each of the three playoff series and was credited with a save in game three of the World Series.

He went on to have a really good career following that run but it would stand as the highlight of his career. He, as mentioned before, had the one save in the World Series. He didn’t earn the win in game two that he started as they needed some walk-off heroics from Scott Podsednik in that game. It was a good playoff, however, as he had done everything needed to get the job done.

In that game two, Buehrle went seven innings and gave up four runs. It wasn’t his greatest performance but he was bailed out by his teammates. He did allow one home run but had six strikeouts and no walks. Neal Cotts would eventually come in and be credited with the win. Buehrle went in to close out game three as he was credited with the save for recording one out.

The White Sox saw Buehrle be great in the World Series which was followed by some really good individual years. He ended his career with a record of 216-160. He threw a perfect game and another no-hitter later in his career which was some of many very good moments. There are people who think he should be in the Hall of Fame but we just have to wait and see as far as that is concerned. Either way, his leadership on the mound for the 2005 World Series team makes him a White Sox legend forever.

There might not be a more underappreciated pitcher in White Sox history than Jon Garland. He was a great player for them for a lot of years and dominated ballgames at times. He was always behind Mark Buehrle as far as hype, even though there were times where he was just as good if not better. 2005 was no different for Garland.

For the 2005 season, Garland was an All-Star for the American League. He also came in sixth for the Cy Young award.  It was a great year for Garland that got to see him end it all on top. Garland was given the start in game three of the World series. He wasn’t credited with the win but he went seven solid innings in their first road game of the series. It ended up being that crazy game where Geoff Blum hit a go-ahead home run in the 14th inning.

In that crazy game that saw him go seven innings, he gave up four runs but only two of them were earned. He had four strikeouts and two walks before he was taken out of the game. It was a very potent Houston offense and Garland was able to get them to the bullpen where they and the offense would do the rest.

Garland had a magical year in 2005 and he was good in many years that followed. He played for the White Sox a total of eight seasons. He also had stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers,  Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, and Los Angeles Angels. It was a nice career for a very important cog in White Sox history.

The White Sox rotation kept throwing good players at you every single night. Jose Contreras is an example of that as teams would have to face him following Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland a lot of the time. No matter what order they went in, having to face them all in one series was less than fun for a lot of teams.

Contreras didn’t get his MLB career started until he was on the older side. 31 years old is pretty old to be a rookie but that’s where he found himself as a member of the New York Yankees in 2003. New York sent Contreras to the White Sox halfway through 2004 in exchange for Esteban Loaiza. It ended up being a great trade for Chicago because Contreras was great there for many years.

Contreras was the only White Sox pitcher to be credited with a loss in the 2005 postseason but that doesn’t mean he didn’t pitch extremely well. In fact, he was the winning pitcher in game one of the World Series. The first World Series game that the White Sox played in a very long time was won by this man. He would go on to have a good career following 2005, including an all-star appearance in 2006. He was a very important piece to this great rotation.

In Game One of the World Series, he pitched seven innings and allowed three earned runs. He didn’t walk anyone and had two strikeouts over the seven innings. The pitcher on the other mound was Roger Clemens and he outdueled him. Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks were used in relief to give Contreras his third win of the postseason.