Catch of the Dazed

Around home plate they converged, three high-pressure systems, swirling, unstable, dangerous.

What happened during the chaos of a mild autumn evening at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday wasn’t luck or coincidence.

It was physics.

It was baseball’s perfect storm.

Behind the plate crouched a journeyman scrub catching for the first time in a championship series game.

Behind him crouched a kid umpire working the plate for the first time in a championship series game.

In front of them was a smirking batter with a history of irritating scrubs and kids.

Shortly before 10 p.m., with a thunderclap that shook a stadium, the three systems collided.

Reputations rattled, integrity shook, one baseball team was whipped into despair, the other was blown into hope, the ground littered with anger and confusion.

There was a result -- Chicago White Sox 2, Angels 1 -- but there was no winner.

There was only a loser.

“Baseball was the loser,” said Buck Rodgers, the former longtime catcher and manager, who was watching from his Southern California home. “A game was decided by something other than the ability of the two teams, so baseball was the loser.”

It was wild, seeing A.J. Pierzynski of the White Sox standing safe on first base after a ninth-inning-ending strikeout that was caught by Angel catcher Josh Paul.

It was weird, hearing umpire Doug Eddings’ explanation that his strikeout call was not a strikeout call, and that Paul’s catch was not a catch.

It was breathtaking, hearing the South Side roar that enveloped Joe Crede’s ensuing game-winning double, pulling the sagging Sox into a 1-1 series.

But, in the end, none of it should have been surprising.

Three high-pressure systems, a squall just waiting to happen.

The Journeyman Scrub

No offense, but, um, er, what was third-stringer Josh Paul doing behind the plate in this game?

Mike Scioscia, managing as he does for the season instead of the moment, wanted to give Bengie Molina’s legs a rest, so he started him at designated hitter and Jose Molina played catcher. Understood.

Then, when lumbering Jose singled to start the eighth, Scioscia wanted to replace him with pinch-runner Jeff DaVanon. Also understood.

The problem arose when, instead of moving Bengie Molina behind the plate, losing his DH and forcing the pitcher to bat, Scioscia decided to replace Jose Molina with Paul.

It was a rare Scioscia move that favored offense over defense. It was a move that backfired.

In 10 pro seasons, Paul has appeared in 228 major league games, and the moment proved too big for him.

Knowing that the strikeout pitch dived toward the dirt and that Eddings had no way of seeing it, Paul should have saved the umpire the trouble by simply tapping Pierzynski on the butt, strikeout, end of story

“It’s something that’s either taught or learned at every level, anything that is close to questionable, you tap the guy and take away the doubt,” Rodgers explained. “It seemed like the inning-ending strikeout got the Angel catcher all hyped up.”

Yes, when Paul rolled the back to the mound, the trouble started.

The Kid Umpire

No offense, but, um, er, what was Doug Eddings doing behind the plate in this game?

He has never worked anything as advanced as a championship series, which would be OK, except half of the six-man crew was in the same situation.

When it came time to sell the biggest call of his life, Eddings appeared to panic.

He says he did not call Pierzynski out. But his gesture said otherwise.

It’s known in some umpiring circles as “knock on the door” -- a closed fist rapped lightly into the air. While it can mean many things, when it was followed by Eddings’ swinging motion, it clearly meant out.

What happened to change the umpire’s mind when every replay confirms he was right?

It appeared that Eddings saw the strikeout pitch dive for the dirt, uncertainly called the batter out, then panicked when he saw Pierzynski run to first base.

It was as if Eddings thought, Why is he doing that? The ball must have hit the dirt!

And so, instead of selling the “out” call, he backed off and changed it.

“The kid caught the ball, the umpire rang him up, and it would have been fine if the umpire had just kept selling the call,” Rodgers said. “The minute he stopped selling the call, all hell broke loose.”

The Smirking Batter

Would any of this have happened if Pierzynski weren’t one of the game’s biggest irritants? A guy who probably ran to first base not just to win a game, but because it involved the added bonus of ticking somebody off?

This is a guy who was ripped by his former Minnesota Twin teammates as being divisive, a guy who was called a “cancer” by some of his former San Francisco Giant teammates.

A guy who, in spring training, offered teammates $100 to hit a homer against the Giants’ Brett Tomko, reportedly one of the guys who ripped him.

Pierzynski will mess with you. And on this night, smart enough to sense a shred of doubt, he found a way to mess with a hyped-up catcher and an overmatched umpire.

“We found a way to win,” Crede said Thursday.

Rather, amid the perfect storm, winning found them.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.