ANGELS TAKE CARE OF THEIR BUSINESS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

CHICAGO - It was ridiculous, just absolutely silly. There would be no explaining it, if it weren't somehow so perfectly to form.

The Angels had no business seeing Tuesday night's opener of their American League Championship Series, let alone actually winning it.

Had no business being the team that executed, that stayed the course, that outlasted a rested White Sox team.

The Angels were doing good to know what city they were in. To just get out of their third different bed in three different time zones in three days should have proved victory enough.

But then they went out and jumped on the White Sox, struck to a quick 3-0 lead and held on.

New York on Sunday, Anaheim on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday. That's not postseason baseball, that's an airline schedule. That's a sleep deprivation test.

After the high of defeating the mighty Yankees in a decisive fifth game in a rocking Angel Stadium on Monday, the Angels boarded their second flight in as many nights and headed to Chicago, or at least that's what they were told.

``We've had a couple of red-eye flights into tonight,'' starter Paul Byrd said. ``I don't know if guys are delirious or what.''

This game should have been a gimme. Should have been a White Sox slam dunk.

The White Sox hadn't played since the Carter administration. Had their house in perfect order, everyone rested and ready.

The Angels were reaching for the coffee, the cola, the No-Doz. Their ace starter, Bartolo Colon, was injured Monday and left off the ALCS roster. The bullpen wasn't depleted, but it was shaky.

Heck, the whole roster should have been shaky. Should have looked a lot like Chone Figgins in the ninth, when he seemed to simply topple over trying to field a Carl Everett bouncer.

``These last 48 hours have been a blur,'' manager Mike Scioscia said.

The Angels are adding new definitions to the term ``resilient.''

The White Sox lost a game they absolutely should have won, lost their home-field advantage, lost their early image as a team that mirrors the Angels' smart, aggressive play.

While the White Sox started slowly, the Angels jumped to the lead behind Garret Anderson's solo home run off Jose Contreras. The same Contreras who finished the season 8-0 with a 2.09 ERA in his last 15 starts.

It was the Angels who got down the bunt, who threw out runners, who again pushed the action and came up with the big play.

They fought fatigue and the White Sox. Fought temptation to give into that inner weight that comes from lack of sleep.

``We're supposed to be tired, but once we get between those lines we don't think about anything but playing the game,'' catcher Bengie Molina said.

Still, the bats should have been a tad slower, their step not as spry, their throws not as crisp. They'd flown more than 4,800 miles in the past two days.

``I was sitting in the bullpen in the third inning and hit a brick wall for a couple of minutes,'' reliever Scot Shields admitted.

And he still came in to throw bullets, to follow Byrd with two shutout innings.

The White Sox entered on a roll. They had swept the defending champion Red Sox. Had waited patiently for the Angels-Yankees survivor. Should have been primed and ready and able.

But twice they were thrown out trying to steal on impressive throws by Molina.

``The best catcher in baseball,'' White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Twice they failed to get a sacrifice bunt down to advance runners. They scored on a Joe Crede homer in the third and an A.J. Pierzynski single in the fourth, and that was it.

Otherwise Byrd held them down. After Anderson's homer, the Angels scored in the third on singles from Steve Finley and Adam Kennedy, a Figgins' sacrifice bunt, Orlando Cabrera's infield single and a run-scoring fielder's choice by Vladimir Guerrero.

Then their offense seemed to hit the wall. It managed only three singles the rest of the game.

But Byrd, Shields and then Francisco Rodriguez held the White Sox down, and the Angels stole a game they really should have lost.

They would tell you all about it, if they hadn't slept walked through most of it.

In a game played in a remarkably subdued U.S. Cellular Field, where the intensity did not approach Yankee Stadium over the weekend nor Angel Stadium on Monday, there should have been some kind of comedown. Instead, once again the Angels found a way.

``We're gamers,'' Cabrera said. ``We know what we have to do. Everybody came here ready to play. Why do we have to worry about, `Oh, I'm so tired.'

``We executed, man. The adrenalin was pumping too high.''

It made no sense, yet somehow perfect sense for the Angels.

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Photo:

The Angels' Garret Anderson launches a solo homer in the second inning off Jose Contreras.

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press