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NEW YORK -- Given another chance, umpire Doug Eddings said he would've been more emphatic in making the call that helped the Chicago White Sox win Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

APPierzynski struck out, but Eddings did not rule that the ball was caught cleanly for the third out in the ninth. Pierzynski reached first base, then eventually scored the winning run.

"The only thing I'm down on myself is I should have sold it either way," Eddings said Thursday. Chicago beat the Los Angeles Angels 2-1 to pull even in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday night.

"I should have either said, `No catch,' or, if I did have a catch, that he was out. Which I never said: `He's out,"' Eddings said.

Eddings talked to reporters from The New York Times, New York Post, Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated at the airport after taking a flight to the West Coast. He was escorted by two Orange County sheriffs and a Major League Baseball security officer as he exited the flight from Chicago.

White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski struck out swinging with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday night, but he hustled to first and was safe because Eddings ruled the pitch was not gloved cleanly.

Thinking the inning was over, Angels catcher Josh Paul had rolled the ball to the mound with the Angels already coming off the field. Eddings' call stood and Pierzynski scored the winning run on Joe Crede's double.

Eddings told the newspaper that he planned to change his style to more clearly reflect the difference between calling a strike and calling a batter out.

Plate umpires are trained to shout "No catch!" or indicate that the ball is in play after a swinging strike; Eddings, who has maintained that he was right in saying the ball hit the dirt before Paul gloved it, was silent.

Mike Port, baseball's vice president of umpiring, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Eddings did nothing wrong and that umpires are not required to audibly call "No catch."

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press