The 2005 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2005 season. The 101st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Chicago White Sox and the National League (NL) champion Houston Astros. The White Sox swept the Astros in four games, winning their third World Series championship and their first in 88 years. The series was played between October 22–26, 2005. Home field advantage was awarded to Chicago by virtue of the AL's 7–5 victory over the NL in the 2005 MLB All-Star Game. The Astros were attempting to become the fourth consecutive wild card team to win the Series, following the Anaheim Angels (2002), Florida Marlins (2003) and Boston Red Sox (2004). Both teams were attempting to overcome decades of disappointment, with a combined 132 years between the two teams without a title. The Astros were making their first Series appearance in 44 years of play, while the White Sox had waited exactly twice as long for a title, having last won the Series in 1917, and had not been in the Series since 1959, three years before the Astros' inaugural season. Background Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox finished the regular season with the best record in the American League at 99–63. The 2005 White Sox led their division wire to wire and only losing 1 game in the postseason. After starting the season on a tear, the White Sox began to fade in August, when a game lead (for the AL Central division title) fell all the way to at one point. However, the Sox were able to hold off the Cleveland Indians to win the American League Central Division by six games, sweeping Cleveland in three games on the season's final weekend. In the Division Series, the top-seeded White Sox swept the defending champion Boston Red Sox. The League Championship Series began with the second-seeded Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim winning Game 1, but a controversial uncaught third strike in Game 2 helped the Sox start a run and win Games 2–5, all on complete games pitched by starters Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Freddy García, and José Contreras, clinching their first American League pennant in 46 years. In game 3 of the ALDS Orlando Hernandez came in with the bases loaded due to Damaso Marte loading the bases with a single and back