1988 Montreal Expos (Marc Weiss) vs 1981 Chicago White Sox (Bruce Thomas)
GAME 1 - Comiskey Park
D.Martinez vs Burns
Expos 3, White Sox 2 (12 inn)
The Pale Hose drew first blood when "the Bull", Greg Luzinski hit a towering 2 run shot off of El President (Dennis Martinez) with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Montreal cut the lead in half the following inning when Luis Rivera scored on a Rex Hudler DP, which prevented the big inning from happening. A two out clout by Andres "El Ghatto" Galarraga in the 6th tied the game at 2-2. Chicago threatened to put it away in the bottom of the 9th with runners on 1st and second ad 1 out. Reliever Jeff Parrett came on to strike out Harold Baines for the second out. Mike Squires grounded out to end the threat and off we went to extra innings. Chicago again threatened with two runners on in the 10th, but Parrett once again had magic in his right arm to fan Rusty Kuntz to end the rally. Galarraga led of the top of the 12th with a triple off of reliever Dennis Lamp. Hubie Brooks grounded a single deep in the hole, just out of the reach of Bill Almon, to score "El Ghatto" easily. Lamp was able to get out of the inning without allowing additional runs. To close out the game Joe Hesketh took the hill for the 'Spos and retired pinch hitter Wayne Nordhagen with an easy fly to center. Ron LeFlore grounded weakly to second for out number two and Tony Bernazard did the same to short for the final out.
Expos lead series 1-0
GAME 2
Perez vs Dotson
Expos 8, White Sox 6 (13 inn)
How do you top a 12 inning extravaganza in game 1? You go 13 innings and have 5 lead
changes in game 2. After 6 1/2 innings of play the Expos were clinging narrowly to a 4-3 lead. After nursing starter Pascual Perez through 6 innings the Expos manager tried to squeeze one more frame out of him. Bad move. Perez got just out in the 7th before handing the ball over to Andy McGaffigan who got the final 2 outs, but not before giving up 3 runs and the lead. At one point the Southsiders had 3 consecutive hits and a walk. Bill Almon and Carlton Fisk each had RBI knocks to give the Pale Hose a 6-4 lead. Chicago's 3rd pitcher on the day, La Marr Hoyt served up a big fly to Galarraga in the 8th to make it a 1 run ball game. Kevin Hickey (CHW's 4th pitcher) was a victim of small ball as the Expos tied the game in the top of the 9th. After Rex Hudler led off with a pinch hit single and stole second, Rivera singled and moved him to third. Nixon squeezed Hudler home and the game was now all squared and headed to overtime. The next 3 innings provided little action and no additional score. The top of the 13th started out as if it was going to be another one of those ho-hum innings until "the Rock, Tim Raines, single with 2 outs and immediately stole 2nd. A rattled Francisco Barrios walked Hubie Brooks to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Andres Galarraga came through again with an RBI single to put the visitors up 7-6. For good measure Tim "Eli" Wallach followed suit to plate Brooks and put his team up 8-6. Tim Burke, who already pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings set the Chisox down in order in the bottom of the 13 to seal his win in this instant classic game played in the rain. Tim Wallach (4-7, 2 RBI) had an incredible day at the plate. Dave Martinea, Wallach and Harold Baines each went yard.
Expos lead series 2-0
GAME 3 - Stadie Olympique'
Trout vs B.Smith
Expos 5, White Sox 0
After 2 "edge of your seat" games no one knew what to expect in game three. The Expos returned home up 2-0, but could have easily been down 2-0, so there was no sense of false confidence spreading in their locker room. For the first 3 1/2 innings the game remained scoreless. The sense around these parts was that we were in for another cliff hanger mirroring the first 2 contests. Then in the bottom of the 4th catcher Nelson Santovenia hit a 3 run shot off of Steve "Rainbow" Trout, to put the Expos up 3-0. With Bryn Smith throwing up goose eggs on the scoreboard one sensed that those 3 runs would loom large. In the bottom of the 5th Galarraga tripled home Hudler to make it 4-0. Surprisingly after 6 shutout innings Smith was lifted from the game in favor of John Dopson. After throwing just 96 pitches Montreal's bearded hurler was done. Dopson was just as clean throwing 3 scoreless innings to share the shutout. Hubie Brooks would hit a solo shot in the 7th to make the final score 5-0 Expos. Galarraga (3-4, RBI) finished the series hitting .467 to nab MVP honors.
Expos win series 3-0
Click here to view series box scores
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