Blum's HR was big blow in longest Series game

HOUSTON -- Another late night -- really late this time. Try the wee hours way past midnight.

Another unlikely homer at the end, too.

And when it was finally over, after 5 hours and 41 minutes, the Chicago White Sox had won the longest game in World Series history.

Geoff Blum broke through with a tiebreaking homer in the 14th inning and Chicago beat the Houston Astros 7-5 on Wednesday morning to move within a win of a sweep and its first title since 1917.

"All three of these games -- up and down," White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "You think you're going to lose, you think you're going to win. It's been incredible. It's been a crazy Series."

Indeed it has -- just look who's hitting the big home runs. Chicago won Game 2 on a ninth-inning shot by Scott Podsednik, who didn't have a homer the entire regular season.

Then it was Blum, a backup infielder and former Astros player who waited on the bench all night before entering as part of a double switch in the 13th inning.

Before Blum's big hit, no one could break through in the 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th.

Long after Chicago overcame a 4-0 deficit with five runs in the fifth against Roy Oswalt and Jason Lane hit a tying double for Houston in the eighth off Dustin Hermanson, Blum batted for the first time in a World Series with two outs in the 14th and faced Ezequiel Astacio, Houston's seventh pitcher.

With nearly all the fans remaining from the original crowd of 42,848 in Minute Maid Park, Blum sent a 2-0 pitch down the right-field line, and the ball sailed over the wall.