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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3425389, member: 289"] Sweeps The White Sox won in a 4-0 sweep of the Astros. How humiliating for the poor Astros. But maybe not. I've always maintained that the true measure of the competitiveness of a series isn't its length but the scores of the games. The Astros lost three straight close, entertaining games, (for those who bothered to watch). Each game- and the series- could have gone either way. But it will go down in history as a sweep. The White Sox outscored the Astros, 20-14 in the four games, which included a 14 inning game. That's an average of 1.5 runs per game. They won by 2, 1, 2 and 1 runs. How does that rate historically? There have now been 19 World Series sweeps, (I am looking only at best of seven series: there were several best of nine series in the early days, including the one the Black Sox threw). One other- the Yankee's sweep of the 1950 Whiz Kid Phillies, in which they outscored them 11-5 in some great pitching duels, was as close as the White Sox- Astros series. The average run margin in a sweep has been 2.95 runs. The 1932 Yankees bashed the Cubs, thanks to Babe Ruth's called shot a terrific series by Lou Gehrig, 37-19, an average of 4.50 runs per game, the biggest margin ever in a sweep. The Sox 1.5 run margin of victory is lower than 13 of the 21 five game series, 5 of the 22 six game series and 4 of the 36 seven game series, including the famous 1960 series where the Yankees outscored the Pirates by 4.0 runs per game- and lost. They Yankees were also outscored by the largest margin in a seven game series- 3.3 runs per game by Arizona in 2001. There have been 19 series in which the loser has outscored the winner, (13 seven game series and 6 six game series). The bottom line is, the Astros have nothing to be ashamed about. They played their hearts out. They just came up short. Buzzard's Luck. [I](I first did this, as you can tell, after the 2005 series. Since then there have been two sweeps: the Red Sox over the Rockies in 2007 and the Giants over the Tigers in 2012. Neither was close. The Red Sox blasted the Rockies 29-10, topping the 1932 Yankees by winning an average of 4.75 runs. The Giants outscored the Tigers, 17-6, (2.75). The average margin of sweeps thus rose to 3.01 runs per game. The Sox 1.5 run margin of victory is now lower than 18 of the 26 five game series, 6 of the 24 six game series and 9 of the 41 seven game series, including all five of the seven series played since 2005.)[/I] [/QUOTE]

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