Two outs, two strikes, bases empty, Cardinals trailing the Astros in the ninth, bottom of the order at the plate ... and still the crowd at Minute Maid Park was tense. They'd had their hearts broken by Albert Pujols before. On Saturday afternoon, the MVP did it again.
But first his supporting cast had to give him the chance.
The Cards scratched out a remarkable two-out rally against Brad Lidge in the ninth to force extra innings, and Pujols capped the comeback with a solo homer off Houston ace Roy Oswalt in the 10th. St. Louis beat the Astros, 7-6, in a game fully worthy of the superb playoff series the same two clubs played the past two years.
I don't know how remarkable it is to get runs on Lidge anymore. His slider is still effective, but it's the only pitch he has outside of a hanging fastball, which he has to throw eventually. Wiser baseball pundits than myself continue to stroke the guy's ego, and he does have 21 saves on the season, but last night's blown save gives him four for the year, the same as he's had for each of the last two seasons total. He still gets the strikeouts, but his ERA is over twice what it was for 2005.
Gloating aside, the NL Central is a dismal division right now. Last night's win was just the Cards' 5th in their last 18 games. The only teams out of the hunt are the Cubs (snicker) and the Pirates. Well, and the Reds, who we all know are going to crap out by the end of the season. The Astros are only 5 games back, and St. Louis seems unable to put any distance between themselves and the rest of the pack.
Last night was sweet to watch, though. Especially, after seeing C. Ronaldo and his fellow flopping pretty boys get their asses handed to them by Germany.
UPDATE: No really, nothing wrong with Lidge.
The fun thing about El Hombre's homer off Oswalt is that it was a perfect "living well is the best revenge" moment. Oswalt's pitch came close to Albert's head (on Fox, they were calling it a brushback), and Albert very calmly whacks the next pitch out of the park.
Gotta love it.
Yeah, it's pretty tough to feel good about the Astros this year. Last night was just another in a long line of heartbreaks. It's even more depressing when I realize that not only are the Cards a much more solid team than the Stros, but the Cards aren't really that good either. And as easy as it is to point the finger at Lidge, there is plenty of blame to go around.