ALDS: Red fades to white as Boston exits

WHITE SOX 5, RED SOX 3: El Duque gets out of a bases-

loaded jam to lead Chicago.

BOSTON - Orlando Hernandez bounced through the Chicago White Sox clubhouse and headed for general manager Kenny Williams. The boss was already drenched with champagne.

"I told you so!" Hernandez shouted. "I told you so!"

Williams didn't need any reminding.

The last player added to the postseason roster, Hernandez got the biggest outs for Chicago on Friday when he pitched out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam to help the White Sox beat Boston 5-3 and sweep the defending World Series champs out of the playoffs.

"Words can't describe the job that he did," Williams said. "The coaches lobbied hard for him and they had some convincing to do. But I'm the guy who signed him - and go back to your notes and take a look at the reason why."

Hernandez, who made the roster instead of talented rookie Brandon McCarthy, is 9-3 in the postseason and was on the mound to finish off the Red Sox for the Yankees in the 1999 ALCS. This time, he helped the White Sox win their first playoff series since Shoeless Joe Jackson's team won it all way back in 1917.

Two years later, Jackson's "Black Sox" took payoffs from gamblers to throw the Series. Eight men were out - banned from baseball for life - and every White Sox player since has lived with a longer but lesser-known "curse" than the supposed one the Red Sox busted when they ended their 86-year drought last season.

"Finally, we make another big step," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "They have waited a long time for this moment. And this team is making it happen this year."

The White Sox, who let Cleveland erase most of a 15-game lead in the AL Central, will have homefield advantage in the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Angels.

"We're not done. I don't think we're satisfied," said Paul Konerko, who hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth. "I think we match up well in this next series with anybody."

Boston had hoped for its first repeat titles since 1915-16, but for the second time in three years its season ended thanks to a Tim Wakefield knuckleball that went over a leftfield wall. In the middle came an unprecedented rally against the Yankees and a World Series sweep that set off a celebration.

"Everybody that was on that team can take that to their grave," Wakefield said.

For the third time in a week, champagne sprayed in Fenway's clubhouses. First came the Yankees and their East title; the Red Sox clinched the wild card the next day.

On Friday, smoke from specially stamped cigars wafted through the visitors' clubhouse as old-timers such as Minnie Minoso and long-timers like Harold Baines talked about the years Chicago waited for a win.

"This is something that I've not seen before. I'm glad that my team did it, and I know that we're going to go all the way," said Minoso, 82 years old and, like El Duque, a Cuban. "We want to do things like the Boston Red Sox did."

The Red Sox cut it to 4-3 when Manny Ramirez led off the sixth with his second homer of the game, then loaded the bases - still with none out. But Hernandez got pinch-hitter Jason Varitek and Game 2 goat Tony Graffanino to pop up, then Johnny Damon struck out on a check swing to end the inning.

"He's probably got the most heart of any pitcher I've ever been around. That's the story of the night for me," Konerko said. "Bases loaded, no outs against the best offense in the major leagues and he comes out of it."

Graffanino fouled off four pitches with two strikes; Hernandez got Damon on a pitch in the dirt with the count full.

"You never get used to it," Hernandez said through a translator. "People think just because you've done it in the past, you'll do it again. ... The most important thing is to have a little bit of good luck."

[Last modified October 8, 2005, 01:26:19]