White Sox series: The Aftermath

A day later the magnitude of what Boston accomplished in Chicago still hasn't sunk in

I watched every game, though admittedly not every inning, of the series Boston played in Chicago this past weekend, and as I sit here 24 hours later I still find it hard to fathom what happened in the Windy City.

I'm 39 years old and have been a Red Sox fan since the fateful season of 1978, weaned on Bucky's blast, the Dewey-Rice-Armas years, the explosion of the Rocket Era right on through to the miraculous 2004 campaign, and in all that time, encompassing thousands of games watched on TV and in person, I have never seen this team so thoroughly dismantle another team like I witnessed this weekend.

Forget about the fact that the White Sox are probably the worst team in the majors right now--although you certainly can't ignore that fact when assessing the carnage--but when a traditionally high powered offensive ballclub accomplishes something that it had not done 57 years, well that's reason to celebrate, putridness of the opponent be damned.

They say baseball, more than any other sport, is a game of numbers. If that old adage is true, the numbers from this weekend paint a picture worth way more than 1000 words.

In case you forgot, lost track, or are like me and still in disbelief over what took place, let's take a quick look at some of the staggering stats the two pairs of Sox compiled in this series for the ages.

STATS: BOS/CHI
RUNS: 46/7
HITS: 52/23
AVG: .331/.178
HRS: 7/4
XBH: 18/4
ERA: 1.75/10.50
BP ERA: 1.58/16.20

I don't know about you but I haven't seen numbers this disparate since me and my buddies were outnumbered 35-7 in a brawl at ZooMass in 1987.

With those kind of massive statistics there had to be a few guys who had a week's (or month's) worth of numbers in one weekend, and here's a look at few of the standout players from the series.

-David Ortiz: 7-17, 7R, 7BI, 3HR, 2B (and that's with an 0-3 in GM1)
-Mike Lowell: 10-19, 6R, 7BI, 2 2B (RBI in every game, 4-6 in GM3)
-Bobby Kielty: 5-13, 4R, 8BI, 2B, HR (went 0-0 w/ 2BI GM1)
-Kevin Youkilis: 6-16, 2R, 6BI, 2 2B, HR (and that's with an 0-4 GM4)

That's just four guys who proved to be a demolition crew when it came to knocking down the Temple of Ozzie in Chitown, but it was a complete team effort that led to the Bosox exorcising the demons of that miserable 2005 ALDS, when Chicago swept the defending World Champions in embarrassing fashion en route to their own South Side series title.

Although not as embarrassing fashion as this was.

And so I got to witness another historic happening with my beloved team. The numbers don't lie, and they will be there for all to see for a long time to come:

-most runs scored by Boston in a four game series since 1949
-most runs scored by Boston in a four game span since 1950
-first team to score 10+ runs in four straight games since 1996
-first AL team to score 10+ runs in four straight games since 1922

In closing I just have to say that I am happy to have been witness to an ass-kicking of such epic proportions, a thoroughly enjoyable way to head into a series with the hated Stankees, secure in the knowledge that when this club is clicking on all cylinders there aren't many teams that can stop it.

Let's keep the good times rolling long enough to break another decade-long streak: the Stanks grip on the division title.