1983 American League Championship Series

The 1983 American League Championship Series was played between the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles from October 5 to October 8.

The Orioles won the series three games to one. Although the White Sox took Game 1 won by a score of 2–1, the Orioles came back to win the last three games of the series. The Orioles went on to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in five games in the 1983 World Series. In the regular season the White Sox won the West Division by twenty games with a 99–63 record. The Orioles won the East Division by six games with a 98–64 record.

Game 1
Wednesday, October 5, 1983 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Playing in their first postseason game since the 1959 World Series, the White Sox jumped out to a 1–0 series lead behind a complete-game victory by Hoyt, the American League Cy Young Award winner. Rudy Law scored the game's first run on a Tom Paciorek, and after a 42-minute rain delay in the fourth inning, the White Sox made it 2–0 when Paciorek walked to lead off the sixth, moved to third when Greg Luzinski reached on an Eddie Murray error and scored when Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle grounded into a double play. Cal Ripken Jr. denied Hoyt's shutout with two outs in the bottom of the ninth by driving in Tito Landrum for the Orioles' only run.

Game 2
Thursday, October 6, 1983 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Mike Boddicker evened the series with a dominant performance, striking out fourteen batters while allowing just five singles and three walks in a shutout victory. Gary Roenicke scored in the second and fourth, then hit a two-run homer in the sixth off losing pitcher Floyd Bannister.

Game 3
Friday, October 7, 1983 at Comiskey Park (I) in Chicago, Illinois

White Sox starter Rich Dotson was rocked for six runs, all earned, over five innings, as the Orioles pushed Chicago to the brink of elimination. Murray hit a three-run homer in the top of the first and went on to score four runs in the game.

Game 4
Saturday, October 8, 1983 at Comiskey Park (I) in Chicago, Illinois

Baltimore eliminated Chicago with a three-run outburst in the top of the tenth, advancing to their first World Series since 1979. White Sox manager Tony LaRussa decided to save Hoyt for a potential Game 5 start and went with Britt Burns instead. Burns pitched nine shutout innings, but the White Sox couldn't push across a run, with shortstop Jerry Dybzinski making a critical baserunning mistake that cost Chicago the potential winning run. With one out in the tenth, Tito Landrum hit a solo homer, ending Burns' night and giving the Orioles all the offense they needed.

Chicago scored one run in the final thirty innings of the series, and hit .211 as a team with no homers. Four of the team's starters, Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, Luzinski and Law, all hit below .200. The Orioles would go on to win the 1983 World Series, while the White Sox would have just one winning season in the next seven, and wouldn't make the playoffs again until 1993. This would be the last postseason game in the Old Comiskey Park.

Composite box
1983 ALCS (3–1): Baltimore Orioles over Chicago White Sox