“Go crazy, folks” became the mantra of St. Louis Cardinals fans after Ozzie Smith’s game-winning home run against the Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series.
The famous call by late announcer Jack Buck was appropriate Monday night when the Cardinals were down to their last strike against Houston in the NLCS before staving off elimination with a single, a walk and Albert Pujols’ mammoth home run.
Now former Thornwood star Mark Mulder will try to pitch the Cardinals into a Game 7, facing Roy Oswalt on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium with St. Louis trailing 3-2 in the series.
In a town where baseball is seemingly in everyone’s DNA, Pujols’ season-saving home run created a buzz that lasted well into Tuesday night.
“That was amazing,” Mulder said. “You go from one moment, trying to prepare myself to pitch in two days, to going, `All right, well, I guess I’m going home,’ to, `Are you kidding me?’ And then all of a sudden getting yourself ready to pitch again.
“Everybody would be lying if for one minute, one second, you didn’t think, `All right, it looks like we’re going home.’ But all of a sudden [David] Eckstein gets a knock and Jimmy [Edmonds] walks and Albert swings at a pitch in the dirt and the next ball he hits, and it’s like you see it going and you almost don’t believe it. It’s such a shock.”
Unlike superstars Alex Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero, both of whom were completely shut down in the postseason, Pujols has proven to be every bit as clutch in the playoffs as he was in the regular season. He came to the plate with a plan in mind and executed it to perfection.
“You can’t think negative in that situation,” Pujols said. “Always think positive, and that’s what I did. I’m just glad that I came through for my guys.”
Should the series go the distance, Cardinals right-hander Matt Morris will face Roger Clemens on Thursday night for the right to face the White Sox in the World Series.
The Cardinals will have their best lineup available again in Game 6. Manager Tony La Russa said Tuesday he hoped to put Abraham Nunez back at third base after Nunez had been sidelined the last two games with a bruised thigh after Jason Lane slid into him during Game 3 in Houston.
“Unless I go in there and find something that wasn’t obvious, I expect him to start,” La Russa said.
Riding the momentum of Monday’s comeback, the Cardinals know if they force a Game 7, anything can happen. When Eckstein came to the plate in the ninth inning of Game 5 with two outs and no one on base, virtually no one thought the Cardinals had a chance.
But Eckstein believed in himself, and that was all that mattered.
“Once you decide that you’re going to take your best shot …” La Russa said. “I remember when Will Clark came here in 2002, and he had a great piece of advice for some of the guys going a little nuts. He just said, `Remember to breathe. You’ve got to remember to breathe.'”
Eckstein breathed deeply while Houston closer Brad Lidge seemed to lose his composure. Eckstein’s single between third and short kept the inning alive, and after Edmonds followed with a walk, Pujols delivered a crushing blow deep in the heart of Texas.
Beating Oswalt and Clemens in back-to-back games is no easy task for the Cardinals, but beating Mark Prior and Kerry Wood back-to-back was no easier when the world champion Florida Marlins did it in Games 6 and 7 of the 2003 NLCS.
“We know what we have to do,” Mulder said. “We have to win. We have to win a ballgame. If we lose, we go home.”
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psullivan@tribune.com
