CHICAGO – One saved the game, the other won it.

Two electrifying home runs.

Two more wins and the Chicago White Sox can call themselves World Series champions for the first time since 1917.

When Paul Konerko’#39;s seventh-inning grand slam wasn’#39;t enough, Scott Podsednik homered off Brad Lidge in the ninth Sunday night to give Chicago a thrilling 7-6 victory over the Houston Astros and a 2-0 World Series lead.

‘#34;I don’#39;t think anyone in the ballpark was thinking about me hitting the ball out of the ballpark,’#34; Podsednik said.

One home run came from a big bopper, who hit 40 during the regular season. The other from Podsednik, who didn’#39;t get his first of the year until the postseason opener against Boston.

‘#34;I’#39;m pretty crazy, so to speak, a little superstitious,’#34; Podsednik said. ‘#34;I’#39;m using something different up there just about every week.’#34;

Konerko homered on Chad Qualls’#39; first pitch after yet another questionable umpiring call, this one a hit batter on Jermaine Dye, who admitted Dan Wheeler’#39;s pitch struck his bat. Konerko’#39;s homer erased a 4-2 deficit, sparking the crowd of 41,432 to life on a drizzly, dreary night and capped a momentous week.

‘#34;He’#39;s got nasty stuff, that guy,’#34; Konerko said. ‘#34;He threw it exactly where I was looking.’#34;

A week earlier, Konerko was selected MVP of the AL championship series win over the Los Angeles Angels. Two days later, his wife gave birth to their first child, Nicholas.

It was Konerko’#39;s fifth postseason homer and the first Series slam since the Yankees’#39; Tino Martinez in 1998.

‘#34;It’#39;s the second-best feeling I’#39;ve had all week,’#34; he said. ‘#34;The baby born Tuesday night … that’#39;s first for the week.’#34;

When the Series resumes in Houston on Tuesday night, Roy Oswalt pitches for the Astros against Jon Garland.

‘#34;Well, we’#39;re not in a good spot,’#34; Houston manager Phil Garner said. ‘#34;They can’#39;t do anything wrong.’#34;

Closer Bobby Jenks, who earned the Game 1 save after not pitching for 14 days, couldn’#39;t work his magic two nights in a row.

Jose Vizcaino, pinch-hitting for Adam Everett with two outs in the ninth, reached the burly reliever for a two-run, opposite-field single to left and Chris Burke just beat Podsednik’#39;s on-target throw to score the tying run, slapping the plate with his hand.

That brought up, Podsednik perhaps the most unlikely hero.

He didn’#39;t have any home runs in 507 regular-season at-bats.

‘#34;We’#39;re going to get this win,’#34; Konerko recalled of the mood in the dugout. ‘#34;I didn’#39;t think we thought it would be that quick or by a home run by him.’#34;

Podsednik came up with one out in the ninth against Lidge, who hadn’#39;t pitched since losing Game 5 of the NL championship series against St. Louis, when he gave up a mammoth three-run homer to Albert Pujols in the ninth that teammates joked rose to airplane cruising altitude.

This one wasn’#39;t as long, but it was just as damaging.

Podsednik lofted a 2-1 pitch to right-center field, and players and fans craned to see whether it would clear the fence. When it did, for the 14th game-ending homer in Series history, Chicago players poured out of the dugout to greet Podsednik at the plate.

Lidge gave up just five homers during the regular season.

‘#34;I’#39;m frustrated by it, but I’#39;m not changing a darn thing,’#34; he said. ‘#34;I’#39;m ready to get out there as quickly as possible.’#34;

Andy Pettitte had put his hometown team in position for its first World Series win, leaving after six innings with a 4-2 lead built by Lance Berkman’#39;s three RBIs and Morgan Ensberg’#39;s solo homer.

Chicago pressured reliever Dan Wheeler on Juan Uribe’#39;s one-out double in the seventh and Tadahito Iguchi’#39;s walk, and the White Sox loaded the bases when Dye was awarded first base on a 3-2 pitch that umpires ruled hit his hand. Houston disputed the call and replays appeared to show the ball striking his bat.

‘#34;I thought in my heart I made the right call. I had it hitting him,’#34; baseball spokesman Pat Courtney quoted plate umpire Jeff Nelson as saying.

If it had been ruled a foul ball, the count would have remained full on Dye. But he took first, Qualls relieved and he left his first pitch over the plate. Konerko turned on it, and it went deep into the left-field bleachers.

‘#34;I’#39;m not going to tell him I fouled it off,’#34; Dye said. ‘#34;Just go to first and, hopefully, we get a big hit and we did.’#34;

It was 45 degrees when the game began, weather more suited to football than baseball. While rain held off in the early going, it began again in the fifth, just before Berkman doubled down the left-field line to break a 2-2 tie. For the rest of the game, many fans wore slickers and held up umbrellas in an attempt to stay dry.

Making his record 34th postseason start, Pettitte needed 54 pitches to get through the first three innings. He allowed two runs in the second on Joe Crede’#39;s opposite-field bloop RBI single to right _ his 10th postseason RBI _ and Uribe’#39;s popup to short right that bounced off the glove of backtracking second baseman Craig Biggio and fell for a run-scoring fielder’#39;s choice.

Ensberg led off the second with his first homer since Sept. 20 at Pittsburgh, and gave Houston its first lead of the Series. Willy Taveras tripled into the right-field corner in the third and made it 2-2 on Berkman’#39;s sacrifice fly.

‘#34;It’#39;s a tough loss,’#34; Biggio said. ‘#34;We’#39;ve been through a lot of adversity all season long. We’#39;ve been able to bounce back and come back.’#34;