Editor's note: Rob Dibble wrote this column after the Mariners took a 2-0 lead over the White Sox in the best-of-five ALDS. Seattle clinched the series Friday, shutting Chicago down again for a 2-1 win.

With these two offensive powerhouses, everyone expected the White Sox-Mariners series to be wide open with a lot of scoring.

Offensively, the Sox were the best team in the majors during the regular season, with a collective .286 batting average. They scored close to 1,000 runs (978, to be exact), averaging more than six runs a game -- the only team in baseball to do that this season. Five guys had 20 or more home runs (three had 25 or more).

	Frank Thomas had a monster 2000 season: .328, 43 homers, 143 RBI. But he wasn't offering any money back after struggling in 1998 and '99.

The White Sox are just a powerhouse team and the Mariners pitching has, thus far, shut them down.

Frank Thomas hasn't really had much to hit. After two games, Thomas is 0-for-7 and has left nine runners on base.

Lou Piniella and pitching coach Bryan Price have put together a great game plan. It's very similar to the plan my Reds' team had 10 years ago against the A's and Pirates, when we won the World Championship.

Our philosophy was that we knew the lead-off guys would get their hits, but we did not want to get hit by the 3-4-5 guys in the middle of the lineup. So, when facing the Sox, the M's have gone to great lengths to carefully pitch to Frank Thomas, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee.

Chicago's 3-4-5 hitters -- Thomas, Ordonez and Lee -- were a combined 0-for-9 Wednesday after going 2-for-13 in the opener.

The only Sox hits Wednesday were from Herbert Perry, Jose Valentin and Ray Durham. So the Mariners have been able to hold the middle of the lineup in check -- and they now have a 2-0 lead going back to Seattle.

If I had to grade both managers so far, I have to give the advantage to Piniella.

In a couple of different situations, especially in Game 2 when the Sox should have had people loose in the bullpen, Jerry Manuel had to leave a left-handed pitcher to face a right-handed hitter. Whereas Piniella had someone warming up in the bullpen from the fourth inning through the rest of the game.

A lot of people are going to make a big deal that the 3-4-5 hitters aren't getting it done, but the M's pitchers aren't giving them much to swing at. They're pounding them with a steady diet of fast balls in on their hands and a lot of breaking balls and change-ups down and away -- trying to make the Sox chase them.

Then, Seattle turns it over to a fantastic bullpen that has been flawless in the first two games: 0 runs, 9 2/3 innings, 3 hits, 7 walks, 11 strikeouts, 2 saves.

Also, in the close games the M's have been able to capitalize more on Chicago's pitching mistakes, and that's why they have the two-game advantage. To this point, the M's game plan has worked almost to perfection.