Not so fast.
The St. Louis Cardinals were one out away from elimination, their 100 wins dangling in Albert Pujols’ hands when he went to the plate Monday night against intimidating Houston Astros closer Brad Lidge.
Forty-four years to the day from the time Houston had been awarded its expansion franchise, the team that was initially known as the Colt 45s was about to advance to the World Series to meet the White Sox. Texas didn’t have a franchise in 1959, the last time the Sox had been to the Series.
But Pujols had other ideas.
The Cardinals slugger shouldn’t even have gotten to the plate in the ninth inning. But after retiring pinch-hitters John Rodriguez and John Mabry to leave Astros owner Drayton McLane thinking he was about to be transported to baseball heaven, Lidge blinked.
First David Eckstein slapped a single between third baseman Morgan Ensberg and shortstop Adam Everett. Then, after Eckstein had taken second while Lidge wasn’t worrying about him, Jim Edmonds worked the National League’s best closer for a walk.
Lidge threw a strike to Pujols, then another slider. The Cardinals first baseman centered it on his bat and there was little doubt that a dream had turned into a nightmare. The ball carried above the wall and slammed off the glass beyond the left-field bleachers for a three-run homer.
After Jason Isringhausen pitched a perfect ninth inning, the Cardinals had a 5-4 victory that will send the NLCS back to Busch Stadium for Game 6 on Wednesday night.
The Astros, who lead three games to two, will have Game 2 winner Roy Oswalt going against Mark Mulder with the legendary Roger Clemens waiting to work in Game 7 on Thursday if it is necessary.
The night’s biggest winners, without doubt, were the White Sox. They are better off facing Houston in the World Series than getting the Interstate 55 matchup with St. Louis but now could wind up getting the Astros with Oswalt and possibly even Clemens unavailable for the weekend’s first two games at U.S. Cellular Field.
You can’t get a worse loss than this was for Houston. The Astros were still celebrating Lance Berkman’s three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, which caused George and Barbara Bush to dance in their seats behind home plate.
Now manager Phil Garner will have to regroup his team and find a way to beat Mulder or Matt Morris, who would work Game 7 for St. Louis.
Lidge at least can count on the support of his teammates. Before the game, he had talked about how the team’s character and its veteran leaders, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell.
“It’s awesome to be on the team in the organization right now,” Lidge said.
He said he and the team’s younger players are keenly aware that Bagwell and Biggio have made five previous trips into the postseason without reached the World Series.
“We’re definitely aware of it,” Lidge said. “When you join this organization, even when I was drafted, I knew Biggio and Bagwell have been to the playoffs a lot of times but never made that final step. But we’ve always had an incredibly competitive team, and that’s what I knew the Astros by when I joined the organization.”
Lidge expects the National League’s pennant winner to get a strong challenge from the White Sox, who will once again have the advantage of being rested.
“They obviously have a tremendous pitching staff,” he said. “Just watching their games on TV, it’s amazing their starters have been able to do what they have done and they seem to get stronger at the end of games.
“That said, they have a tremendous bullpen, too, a great bullpen all year that I’ve seen. They have some tremendous arms down there. To me, they look like an incredibly talented team. They have great hitters, too, but their pitching staff just looks tremendous and hopefully we’ll have to worry about that problem soon.”
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Astros vs. Cardinals
Astros lead series 3-2
All games on WFLD-Ch. 32
Game 1: ST. LOUIS 5-3
Game 2: Houston 4-1
Game 3: HOUSTON 4-3
Game 4: HOUSTON 2-1
Monday: St. Louis 5-4
Wednesday: Hou. (Oswalt 20-12) at StL (Mulder 16-8), 7:28
Thursday: at St. Louis, 7:28-*
Home team in CAPS
*-if necessary
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