‘El Duque’ applies knockout for ChiSox

BOSTON – Orlando “El Duque” 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, no-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 since then the White Sox have 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 American League Central, will have home-field advantage in the A.L. 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.”

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

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 the White Sox waited for a playoff 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.”

Boston 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 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, whose error before Tadahito Iguchi’s three-run homer was the difference in a 5-4 loss on Wednesday night, fouled off four pitches with two strikes; Damon also worked the count full, but Hernandez fanned him.

“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.”

Hernandez shut out the Red Sox on one hit over three innings, and Juan Uribe’s suicide squeeze made it 5-3 in the ninth. Rookie closer Bobby Jenks, a one-time Rathdrum, Idaho, resident, got three outs to save it for winner Freddy Garcia.

On a windy and overcast day with rain threatening to extend the series, the White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the third with four consecutive hits off Tim Wakefield – doubles by Uribe and Scott Podsednik and singles by Iguchi and Jermaine Dye.

David Ortiz and Ramirez hit consecutive homers in the fourth to tie it, then Garcia escaped in the fifth after Damon doubled with two outs and Edgar Renteria walked. With Ortiz on deck and the crowd in a full-throated “M-V-P!” chant, pitching coach Don Cooper came out to settle his pitcher.

Ortiz swung at the first pitch and hit it hard to straightaway center field but, unlike his first homer, the wind wasn’t able to carry this one. Aaron Rowand gathered it in a few steps in front of the wall, about 400 feet from home plate.

Chicago lost in the ‘19 and ‘59 Series and the ‘83, ‘93 and 2000 playoffs.

White Sox 5, Red Sox 3

CHICAGO WINS SERIES 3-0

a-fouled out for Mirabelli in the 6th. 1-ran for Olerud in the 8th. E—Timlin (1). LOB—Chicago 6, Boston 8. 2B—Podsednik (1), Rowand (2), Pierzynski (2), Uribe (1), Damon (1). HR—Konerko (2), off Wakefield; MRamirez 2 (2), off FGarcia 2; DOrtiz (1), off FGarcia. RBIs—Podsednik (4), Iguchi (4), Konerko 2 (4), Uribe (4), DOrtiz (1), MRamirez 2 (4). SB—Rowand (1), Pierzynski (1). CS—Podsednik (2). S—Crede, Uribe. GIDP—Rowand, Damon. Runners left in scoring position—Chicago 5 (Iguchi, Konerko, Crede, Uribe 2); Boston 4 (Damon 2, DOrtiz, Mirabelli). Runners moved up—Podsednik, Pierzynski, Crede. DP—Chicago 2 (Crede), (FGarcia, Uribe and Konerko); Boston 1 (Mueller, Graffanino and Olerud).

FGarcia pitched to 1 batter in the 6th, Marte pitched to 3 batters in the 6th, Bradford pitched to 1 batter in the 6th, MMyers pitched to 1 batter in the 6th. Inherited runners-scored—OHernandez 3-0, MMyers 1-0, Papelbon 2-0. HBP—by Wakefield (CEverett), by Wakefield (Podsednik). T—3:28. A—35,496 (35,095).