Extra strength

HOUSTON -- The only other World Series game that went this many innings was Game 2 in 1916, when the Red Sox beat Brooklyn, 2-1, and both starting pitchers -- including the winner, George Herman Ruth -- went the distance.

Last night, in Game 3 of the 101st World Series, the White Sox prevailed, 7-5, when former Astro Geoff Blum, a seldom-used reserve who joined the team in a trading-deadline deal with San Diego and didn't enter the game until a double switch in the 13th inning, hit a home run off Astros rookie Ezequiel Astacio with two outs in the 14th.

Astacio subsequently walked Chris Widger with the bases loaded to force in Chicago's seventh run, and the White Sox stand on the verge of a sweep, taking a three-games-to-none lead into tonight's Game 4.

The time of game was 5:41, making it the longest in Series history. It ended at 1:20 a.m. Central time, but the long day's journey into night was well worth it for the White Sox, who are a win away from their first World Series championship since 1917.

The Astros did not have a hit after Jason Lane's game-tying double in the eighth. White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle (normally a starter) finally finished the game by getting Adam Everett to pop to short with runners on first and third. Buehrle was the game's 17th pitcher, easily a Series record.

Blum's homer came on only his second at-bat of the postseason. He pinch hit in Game 1 of the Division Series against the Red Sox, popping to second in a 14-2 win.

The way things have gone for the White Sox this postseason, it looked like No. 43, George Bush -- not No. 41, who was sitting front and center with his wife Barbara -- might be forced to issue a presidential decree renaming the month Oztober.

But with the White Sox just four outs away from the win, manager Ozzie Guillen's penchant for the unconventional -- some might say bizarre, but we'll leave the animal sacrifices out of this discussion -- threatened to catch up with him, with his decision to summon the Tin Man, Dustin Hermanson.

Eschewing closer Bobby Jenks and his 100-mile-per-hour fastballs -- how do you like those rockets, Houston? -- Guillen elected to call on Hermanson, whose bad back had made him a spectator the entire postseason. Hermanson, who was supposed to be part of the Red Sox' starting rotation in 2002 until he slipped on a wet mound in his first Boston start and strained his groin, hadn't pitched in a game since Sept. 30.

All Guillen was asking of Hermanson with two on and two out -- White Sox relievers Cliff Politte and Neal Cotts each having walked a man after Politte retired the first two batters -- was to shake off 3 1/2 weeks of rust and retire Lane, who earlier in the game had homered off Jon Garland as the Astros opened a 4-0 lead in the first four innings.

Hermanson, throwing sliders exclusively, got ahead of Lane, 1 and 2, but then hung a slider that Lane lashed down the left-field line for an RBI double, tying the score at 5 apiece. Hermanson preserved the tie by striking out Brad Ausmus on a called third strike, but White Sox fans were left to ponder why Jenks was left idling on a launching pad.

El Duque, Orlando Hernandez, kept the second-guessers at bay with a ninth-inning escape act reminiscent of his virtuoso rescue in Game 3 of the Division Series against the Red Sox, when he entered with the bases loaded and no outs and left them that way.

Last night, after Everett popped out to open the ninth, El Duque walked Chris Burke on four pitches, then threw away his pickoff attempt, allowing Burke to speed to second. Hernandez then put Burke out of mind, not a good idea, as Burke stole third without a throw. Hernandez walked the next man, Craig Biggio, but then whiffed rookie Willy Taveras, and after an intentional walk to Lance Berkman, struck out Morgan Ensberg on a curveball so slow it wouldn't have drawn a ticket in a school zone.

Astros closer Brad Lidge, victimized by game-deciding home runs in his previous two appearances, struck out Aaron Rowand with the go-ahead run on second to end the ninth, then pitched a 1-2-3 10th, striking out two.

Even on a night when a White Sox opponent finally caught a break -- Everett should have been erased on the bases on a third-inning pitchout, but scrambled back to first after being struck in the back by shortstop Juan Uribe's throw, the error leading to two unearned runs -- Guillen's team had been on the verge of issuing a last call to the Series.

Shoeless Joe and those other ghosts who disappeared into an Iowa cornfield? Maybe they will finally rest in peace if these White Sox succeed in erasing the memory of the fixed 1919 World Series and bring Chicago its first Series champion since 1917.

The White Sox put the Astros on the brink in a wildly improbable fashion, under the stars (the roof was open), deep in the heart of Texas, spotting Astros ace Roy Oswalt a 4-0 lead, then shocking a sellout crowd of 42,848 that included the state's living legend, Nolan Ryan, by scoring five runs in the fifth inning.

The rally began with a home run by Joe Crede and culminated with A.J. Pierzynski's two-run double that rolled up the slope of Tal's Hill in center field.

That his hit came off Oswalt was no small achievement, however, Oswalt having entered the game unbeaten in seven postseason appearances and looking to win his fourth game this postseason, a feat accomplished just 10 times previously.

Instead, the 20-game winner labored through the longest inning of his career, throwing 46 pitches while facing 11 batters. Never before had Oswalt thrown as many pitches in one inning. Only once this season had he allowed as many as five runs in a game at home, and that was back on April 5. And only once before this season had he given up five runs in an inning, back on Aug. 27 in Los Angeles.

The biggest lead the Astros had lost this season in a loss was four runs, and they did that twice. Last night threatened to make it three, Crede jump-starting the White Sox with his second home run of the World Series and fourth of the postseason. Uribe followed with a base hit to left, bringing up White Sox pitcher Jon Garland.

Many managers would have lifted Garland, who had been touched for four runs, for a pinch hitter. But Guillen stuck with him, and while Garland struck out, the next three White Sox hitters followed with base hits.

Garland, meanwhile, set down nine in a row after Lane's home run and did not allow another run before being lifted after the seventh.