AstrosFanInExile

2005 POST-SEASON

OCTOBER 5-9: NL DIVISON SERIES

Houston vs Atlanta

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005 (Game 1) – Houston @ Atlanta

Houston 10, Atlanta 5

The Astros don’t like to be too predictable, and today’s opening game of the 2005 playoffs was not at all what I expected. Probably not what Phil Garner expected, since he was playing small ball in the first inning, imagining that the Astros would have to scrounge for runs. Instead they started out with the bats flying, the runners running, and the scoreboard hopping. One might even think that they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that graced Turner Field this evening.

Pettitte pitched a fine game to get the win – 7 innings, 3 ERs, on 4 hits and 2 walks, with 6 strikeouts. But given how many times that the Astros have failed to get 3 runs this season, it took more than fine pitching. It also took Morgan Ensberg.

Ensberg was the offensive star of the show: He was 3 for 4, with 3 RBI singles and an RBI walk, for total of 5 RBIs. Garner has switched Ensberg and Berkman in the lineup, putting Berkman 3rd and Ensberg in the cleanup spot. With Berkman’s walks (3 more today), the pitchers have got to throw to Ensberg, and he took advantage of the situation today in a big way. His 5 RBIs tied Houston’s club record – set just last year by Carlos Beltran. (Need I point out to anyone that Beltran is not playing in the post-season this year?)

If Ensberg was busy hitting guys in throughout the game, Biggio was doing what a leadoff batter is supposed to do: getting on base and scoring runs – 3 of them in this game.

The Astros did a great job of playing small ball in the early innings – scoring in 3 of the first 4 innings. All in all, the Astros did a great job of banging up last-minute fill-in starter Tim Hudson. (John Smoltz still has a sore shoulder, so the Braves’ are holding him out another day.) Hudson had control problems, throwing a lot of balls letter high (or higher – more than a couple over the head of the catcher), and the Astros batters capitalized on the opportunity. No homers, no big bang flashing hits. A handful of doubles, and a lot of bloop singles, 5 walks, and a hit batsman.

But then in the 8th inning, with a slim 4-3 lead, the Astros broke the game wide open. In a rare scoring frenzy, they batted around against three Braves’ relievers, putting another 5 runs on the board. The relievers gave up 3 singles, 3 walks (including Ensberg with the bases loaded, for his 5th RBI of the game), and a run-scoring wild pitch. I can only hope that this is a glimpse of what I’ll see in the rest of this series!

High points:

It was Pettitte’s 14th postseason win – his 30th playoff start, and the first time that he was the Game 1 pitcher. Pettitte is tied with John Smoltz for the most playoff wins among active pitchers. (That’s what you get when you play all those years with the Yankees or the Braves…) Smoltz gets his chance to come back tomorrow, against Clemens. Pettitte also had some fun at the plate: He hit two successful sacrifice bunts as well as a ground-rule double in the 7th inning. The sac bunts are typical; Pettitte’s got about 15 of them this year. But the double was the first extra base hit of the year for Pettitte, who only hit about .080 during the regular season. He went on to score on Ensberg’s 3rd RBI single.

After all of the years that Biggio has been razzed about poor performance in the post-season, he broke through that last year, and he’s off to a great start this year too. He seemed to be in the middle of just about every scoring opportunity. He was 2 for 3 with a single, a double, a walk, a sac fly, and a sac bunt – scoring 3 times. He not only got on base; he was extremely aggressive in his base running, which positioned him to score those all important Astros runs. That double sure looked a lot like a single -- until Biggio zoomed around first and beat the throw to second.

Bagwell must have felt great today. After all that he’s been through this year to make it back in time for the playoffs, he got to contribute today. Since he can’t field, he only gets one chance in a game to make his mark as a pinch hitter. Today it came in the 8th inning, with the Astros leading 5-3, one out and the bases loaded. The ESPN announcers were talking about how much the Braves needed the double play here, when Bagwell reached over for a 1-1 pitch and blooped it into left to score the first run. The hit kicked off the Astros’s big 5 inning blast that broke the game open.

Disappointments:

I didn’t get to watch this game live, because it fell on Rosh Hashanah. I checked the score the moment the holiday ended, and then watched the archived game in 5-minute chunks. I guess mlb.tv isn’t going to make the whole game available until the next day.

Given the big lead that the Astros took into the late innings, Pettitte (who had batted in the 8th) didn’t need to stay in after all. Garner took him out and brought in Wheeler in the 8th and Springer in the 9th. After a lot of really excellent relief pitching recently from these guys, today wasn’t their best performance. Each of them gave up hits and runs. Wheeler gave up a single, hit a batter, and then gave up an RBI double, before settling down and getting out of the 8th. Springer gave up a leadoff triple, struck out the next batter, and then gave up an RBI single before Garner pulled him. He brought in Gallo, who allowed an infield hit. The runner on first made it to 3rd on Ensberg’s throwing error (given all his RBIs, he’s more than forgiven!). No harm done – the next batter hit into a double play to end the game. It was funny to see Gallo on the mound at the end of the game, pumping his fist, instead of Lidge – but it was great not to need Lidge for at least one win. The less-than-perfect relief pitching wasn’t a problem, with such a big lead, but if Houston is going to the World Series, the Astros need to see some of the precision relief pitching that has characterized its bullpen recently.

Orlando Palmeiro came THIS CLOSE to hitting a grand slam. With 2 outs in the 7th, and the bases loaded, he hit a fly ball that went way, way, way out – but was caught right at the right field wall.

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

Yesterday’s start to the playoffs didn’t come out the way I would have wished. I’m cheering for the Red Sox and the Angels in the AL, and the Padres in the NL. I’m hoping that the Yankees will fall out in the first round, and that by some miracle, the Padres manage to overturn the Cards. That would certainly be a long-odds outcome! But things didn’t start out right:

The Cards, with Chris Carpenter on the mound, were too much for the Padres, winning 8-2. Carpenter had to come out of the game after 6 with cramps in his hands. But the Padres’ Jake Peavy is done for the year: He’s got a broken rib, apparently suffered during the celebrations of the Padres’ NL West title. Guy sure knows how to have a good time!

The Red Sox got trounced yesterday by the White Sox, 14-2. Then they lost a close one today, 5-4. Well, comebacks are Boston’s thing, and it’s not over till it’s over…

The Yankees beat the Angels 4-2. They’re playing again out in California tonight, but perhaps too late for me to find out the results.

Final123456789RHE

Houston «10210015010 111

Atlanta 100200011590

W: A. Pettitte (1-0) L: T. Hudson (0-1)

=============================================================================

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2005 (Game 2) – Houston @ Atlanta

Atlanta 7, Houston 1

In one way it was a Classic Clemens start: The Astros couldn’t manage to score runs; they could barely manage to get on base. Blame it on the weird karma that’s hounded Clemens all season, or (more likely) blame it on John Smoltz’s great pitching. But after the Astros scored a run in the first, they left the runners stranded with the bases loaded, and that was kind of emblematic of the game.

In another way, it was hardly typical Clemens start – Atlanta scored 5 runs off of him in 6 innings on 6 hits and 3 walks, and only 2 strikeouts. Not at all the overpowering Clemens pitching we are used to seeing. Was his hamstring bothering him? (Maybe.) Tired after the long season? (Doubtful.) Postseason jitters? (That would be hard to believe – the guy’s been doing this forever.) At any rate, a disappointing game, and a missed chance to go to Houston with a commanding lead in the series.

The Astros got off to a good start, scoring a run in the first inning, and loading up the bases against Smoltz. Taveras singled, Berkman singled, Ensberg hit into a fielder’s choice, then Lane got the RBI single. Palmeiro was intentionally walked to load the bases with 2 outs, and Smoltz struck out Everett to end the inning without further damage. Clemens then got rid of the Atlanta batters, 1-2-3, in the bottom of the inning. Looked like another good game.

But things went downhill from there. Smoltz got more comfortable and held the Astros to scoreless inning after inning. And Clemens started to get into trouble right away. In the top of the second, a single and a walk put runners on first and second with 2 outs. At the plate was Brian McCann, the Braves’ 21-year old rookie catcher, for his first ever post-season at bat. Clemens threw him 2 balls, then he hit the 3rd pitch out for a 3-run home run. That ought to give the kid something to remember.

Clemens was in trouble again in the 3rd. He got a quick 2 outs, but again couldn’t get the 3rd one. A walk, a single, and a double combined to put 2 more Braves’ runs on the scoreboard. He gave up a couple of singles in the 4th, and a walk in the 5th, but kept Atlanta from scoring again while he was pitching.

With the Astros not putting any runs across the plate, the damage was already done. It seemed like they conceded the game. The Astros got scattered hits, but didn’t really threaten to score for the rest of the game.

While my mlb.tv connection is pretty good, my TV set doesn’t work worth a damn. So I can’t actually watch these nationally televised games live at home. I watched this game at Hatte’s – we went out after work for sushi and sake, and then back to her house for the game. It would have been a hoot, except for the outcome. Spent the night there, and took the subway to work from Alexandria this morning. I better call the Sunshines to score a place to watch Saturday night’s game!

The Astros wore road reds. Like Atlanta the day before, they found that the red jerseys didn’t exactly bring them luck.

High points:

Taveras was 3 for 4, with 3 singles. Too bad no one hit him in!

Berkman did a bit of sliding in this game. Slide into home in the first inning, to score the Astros’ only run of the game. Then a slide back into first on fly ball to avoid the double play on Ensberg’s fly ball.

Chris Burke got a pinch hit double.

Garner brought in two relievers that I didn’t particularly expect to see in a game like this. Backe relieved Clemens in the 6th, to pitch a scoreless inning. He will be starting in Game 4 on Sunday. Qualls pitched the 7th (see Disappointments). The Lidge came in to pitch the 8th, in what was clearly not a save situation, with the Astros behind by 6 runs. I’m not sure that Lidge can manufacture enough adrenalin to be effective when it’s not a tight game. He gave up 2 walks, but no hits or runs

Disappointments:

Qualls pitched the 7th, and was not at all on his game. He gave up 2 more ERs, on 4 hits and a walk. Given that the game wasn’t even close, it didn’t effect the outcome, but that’s not what the Astros will want to see when they bring him in to pitch in a more challenging situation.

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

The Cards beat the Padres, 6-2, for a 2-0 lead in the series.

The Red Sox still trail the White Sox in the series, 2-0. One more chance on Friday…

The Yankees are tied with the Angels, 1-1.

Final123456789RHE

Houston 100000000181

Atlanta «03200020x7110

W: J. Smoltz (1-0) L: R. Clemens (0-1)

=============================================================================

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2005 (Game 3) – Houston @ Atlanta

Houston 7, Atlanta 3

Roy Oswalt was excellent tonight, pitching into the 8th inning to give the Astros a 2-1 edge in the series. Oswalt pitched 7 1/3 innings, giving up 3 ERs, on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts. His fastball blew by at 96 or 97 MPH, and his slow overhand curve came in about 30 MPH slower.

Oswalt’s first 2 runs scored in a very weird 2nd inning, when he seemed disconcerted over what appeared to be a strange balk call. The batter took first base, as it was called as a 4th ball, and the runner on first went to second. The next batter hit into a double play, and it seemed that all would be well. But Oswalt gave up a walk and then singles to the catcher and to the pitcher, scoring the 2 runs.

Oswalt had another odd experience in the 3rd inning. With Giles up to bat with an 0-2 count, Oswalt’s foot slipped on the rubber and he fell on the mound. Luckily, he managed to keep from throwing the pitch. He wasn’t hurt and when he got up, shaking his head, he threw a 96 MPH fast ball to Giles for strike 3, the first of Oswalt’s 7 Ks. That got a sheepish smile out of him, and he seemed to be much more focused on the mound after that.

The last ER credited to Oswalt scored after he left the game in the 8th, when Wheeler allowed a runner he had left on 1st base to score. Other that that, Oswalt pitched a tight game, with 70 strikes in his 106 pitches. When he left in the 8th inning, the Houston crowd was on its feet with a boisterous standing ovation.

Like last night, Houston got off to an early start, with the first 2 runs scoring in the 1st inning. Biggio led off with a double – the first of 3 he’d hit in the game. Taveras struck out, then Berkman was hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Ensberg doubled to score Biggio, and Berkman made it to 3rd. Lane scored Berkman on a sac fly, to give Houston a 2-0 lead.

The Astros lost that lead in the top of the 2nd, and the game went to the bottom of the 3rd with the score tied 2-2. Then Lamb, who Garner used as an extra lefty instead of Palmeiro in this game, hit a solo home run to put the Astros ahead 3-2.

The Astros had their Big Inning in the 7th, when Chris Reitsma relieved the Braves’ starter Jorge Sosa. Relief pitching is not the strength of the Atlanta team this year, and the Astros were able to take advantage of the situation in a big way. Biggio opened the inning with a double – his 3rd of the game. The Fox TV announcers were complaining that Taveras didn’t seem to be able to move Bidge to 3rd with a sac bunt. Meanwhile Willie T beat out an infield single, and Biggio made it to 3rd. Berkman singled to score Biggio. The Braves changed pitchers. Ensberg doubled to score Taveras. With runners on 2nd and 3rd, and no outs, Lamb was walked to load the bases. Lane singled to score Berkman. The Braves changed pitchers again. Everett hit a sac fly to score Ensberg before Ausmus came up to hit into a double play to end the inning. But not before the Astros had scored 4 runs, leading the Braves, 7-2.

Atlanta scored again off of Wheeler in the 8th, but the damage was limited to 1 run. Lidge came into pitch the 9th in a non-save situation, and that was the game.

The Astros wore home whites. I watched this game after Shabbat at the Sunshines, since they have good TV reception. The game was played in Minute Maid Park. Although it was a nice clear 71-degree evening in Houston, they played with the roof closed – to amplify the roar of the Astros’ fans. The attendance for the game -- 43,759 – was the largest in the history of the stadium. The effect of the crowds screaming is a huge energizer to the team. Biggio: "Last year we got to really see what our crowds were all about in this building. They're your 10th guy." The Braves manager told his guys to just pretend that the crowds were cheering for them.

High points:

Lamb’s home run was the first for the Astros in the playoffs. It’s about time! I’m looking forward to seeing some from Berkman and Ensberg before this is all over!

Biggio was 3 for 5, with 3 doubles, scoring twice. His batting average for the series is a nice round .500. After the bad rap that Bidge and Bagwell carried all those years for less-than-stellar post-season play, it’s fantastic to see Biggio batting so well in this series.

Ensberg was 2 for 4, with a pair of doubles, and 2 RBIs.

Taveras was 2 for 5, with a single and a double.

Lane was 2 for 3, with a double, and 2 RBI.

Gallo came in to pitch in a slightly sticky situation in the 8th – runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs. He got the 3rd out with no problem.

Then Lidge came in and made short work of the Braves in the 9th. He gave up a single on a 3-2 count to 47-year old Julio Franco (you gotta cheer for a guy that age who’s still in the game!), but other than that, he was brutal: He struck out Brian McCann, the 21-year old catcher, on 3 pitches. He got Furcal to fly out in one pitch. Then he struck out Giles on 3 pitches. Total: 13 pitches, 11 of them nasty strikes.

Disappointments:

Wheeler made another relief appearance that was not as sharp as one would wish from the Astros ace setup man. He relieved Oswalt in the 8th with a runner on 1st and 1 out. He gave up a double to score the runner (Oswalt’s ER). He got the next batter to fly out, and would have had the 3rd out, but for Everett’s throwing error. So it was really only one unfortunate batter. But a runner scored while he was on the mound in Game 1 too. The Astros relievers need to be a little closer to perfect to get to where they want to be in the playoffs.

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

The Cards beat the Padres, 7-4, to win their playoff series in 3 games. Disappointing, but not unexpected – the Padres barely squeaked to a .500 season. A win against the Cardinals would have been a massive upset.

The Red Sox lost their 3rd game on Friday, and are now out of post-season play. The White Sox move on to the next round.

The Yankees and Angels were rained out Saturday. They continue on Sunday, with the Angels ahead, 2-1, in the series. I almost hope that the Yankees win and go on to play against the Astros in the World Series. It would be so cool if everyone in the country, except the New Yorkers, were cheering for the Astros! Everyone hates the Yankees.

Final123456789RHE

Atlanta 020000010380

Houston «20100040x7 121

W: R. Oswalt (1-0) L: J. Sosa (0-1)

=============================================================================

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2005 (Game 4) – Houston @ Atlanta

Houston 7, Atlanta 6

This was the best baseball game I’ve ever seen. It was the Princess Bride of Baseball Games – great feats of power and endurance, thrilling duels, cunning strategy, rescue from certain death, magic spells, and finally, victory after every bit of strength is used up. It was the best playoff game ever. It would have been a good game, a memorable game, a classic -- even if the Astros hadn’t won. But they did it! Came from way behind and…

THEY WON!

The Astros WON! They’re going to the NL Championship Series!

So what made this the best baseball game I’ve ever seen? Let’s see…

How about going 18 innings – basically a double header with no break? It was the longest playoff game ever. Longer by two innings than the 1986 Astros-Mets playoff game (which, alas, the F-ing Mets won). On the clock: 5 hours, 50 minutes. On the mound: 553 pitches (300 of them by Houston pitchers).

How about two grand slams – one for each team? Never happened in a playoff game before. Adam LaRoche hit the first one in the 3rd inning, after Backe had walked two batters and hit a third with a pitch. That gave Atlanta an instant lead, which seemed fairly insurmountable to the low-scoring Astros. The Astros were down, 6-1, in the 8th, looking at having to play again in Atlanta tomorrow, when Lance Berkman put them back in the game with his grand slam.

How about a just-barely home run from the #8 batter to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs? Brad Ausmus had only 3 home runs this season before this last-chance fly ball that hit the wall an inch over the yellow line to keep the Astros in the game. It’s hard to imagine that magic wasn’t involved – especially after the TV cameras showed Brandon Backe rubbing and waving Ausmus’ bat before his at-bat. Backe’s explanation: "Brad came up to me and said, 'You've been giving up hits all day, so why don't you take (my) bat and rub some luck into it?' I rubbed some luck into it, and sure enough, he hit a home run."

How about using one of the greatest starting pitchers as a relief pitcher – for the last 3 innings? Roger Clemens came in as a pinch hitter in the 15th inning, and stayed in to pitch the 16-18th innings, and ultimately to win the game. It was the first time he’d pitched in relief since July, 1984, when he was a 21-year old rookie. And he pitched like Classic Clemens – totally on target, focused, striking out batters, and winning the game.

How about the ultimate team effort: Using almost every one of their roster players? The Astros used 23 of their 25 players. Garner had used up all of his position players by the 13th inning. By the 15th inning, when Clemens was called in to pinch hit, the Astros had used up every hitter and every pitcher available, except for Oswalt (who pitched yesterday) and Pettitte (who was supposed to start tomorrow). After that, they were stuck with the players in their lineup; all they could do was move them around. That’s how Ausmus, the starting catcher, found himself playing first base for a few innings, and then ended up back as the catcher for Clemens – with Chavez moved to first base, for the first time in his career! By the end of the game, only Biggio, Ensberg, and Lane were still playing the positions in which they had started almost 6 hours earlier.

How about a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning, by a kid who was playing his first full year in the majors? Last year this time, Chris Burke had just been called up from the minors, and had 17 big-league at bats – with just one hit. Today his home run ended the game and won Houston their division playoff series. It was only the sixth series-ending home run in playoff history.

This game was really more like a double header, both in length and in action. The first game was Atlanta’s apparent rout of the haplessly poor-scoring Astros, with a miraculous come-from-behind finale when the Astros tied it up in the bottom of the 9th. The first game featured starting pitchers Brandon Backe and Tim Hudson, both of whom were all but forgotten by the 9th inning. The second game was a 9-inning duel between a constantly changing array of relief pitchers, all pitching shutout ball, until finally a home run in the bottom of the 18th put a sudden end to the game.

The Astros wore home Sunday reds. This time red was definitely their lucky color. I watched this game at the Sunshines. Phil admitted at the end that he was glad I was there; otherwise he wouldn’t have been watching and would have missed such a great game.

High points:

Given that this was really two-games-for-the-price-of-one, there are sooooo many high points!

I’ll start with Houston’s relief pitching, since without them, this game would have been hopeless. Backe only lasted 4 1/3 innings, so Garner was looking to cover a lot of innings with relief pitching. (Little did he know that it would turn out to be 13 2/3 innings!) Aside from a solo homer given up by Wandy Rodriguez in the 8th, the Houston bullpen pitched scoreless ball, and just kept getting better and better, inning by inning. Gallo relieved Backe in the 5th. Despite a walk and a hit batter, he managed to end the inning with 8 pitches. Springer pitched the 6th and 7th, gave up a few hits and a walk – but no runs. Wandy pitched the 8th, gave up that homer, but otherwise pitched okay. Qualls pitched the 9th and 10th, with 1 hit, 1 BB, 1 K, and no runs. Lidge pitched the 11th and 12th, with 1 hit, 2 BBs, 3 Ks, and no runs. Wheeler pitched the next three innings, with 1 hit, 3 BBs, 4 Ks, and no runs. Finally, Clemens came in to pitch till the end (since there was no one else left to call on). I don’t know how long he could have gone, but he threw 3 beautiful innings – 1 hit, no BBs, 4 Ks – everything he probably wished he’d done last Thursday!

Clemens was the next-to-last batter of the game. He struck out, then started down the dugout tunnel to prepare to go back out on the mound. Then Burke hit his home run. Clemens ran back out on the field, gave him a bear hug, and twirled him around in a firemans’ carry. Kind of a father-son moment. How cute is that? Burke’s response: "Once Roger gets his hands on you, you have no choice. Whatever he wants to do to you, that's what's going to happen."

Or how about this father-father moment: Roger Clemens (age 43) facing Julio Franco (age 47) at bat? Between them they have 42 years of major-league experience. (Franco struck out in the 16th, and popped out in the 18th.)

When Berkman came up to bat in the 8th, with the bases loaded and one out, I was whispering “Home run, home run…” And then he hit his grand slam! It was awesome. But I have to be honest – I didn’t call the shot. I often whisper “Home run, home run” to players (especially Berkman and Ensberg), and they most often ignore me. However, I am grateful that Berkman picked such a monumental time to listen to me!

Ausmus’ home run in the 9th was a complete surprise. When he first hit it, I was so sure that the ball would be caught by Andruw Jones that I said aloud, “Well, that’s the game. They’ll have to win tomorrow.” And then I realized that the ball had hit the wall, and thought that it was a double so I clapped. It wasn’t until a few moments later that I realized that it was a home run – and then I did some shrieking.

Don’t you love it when good things happen to a Nice Guy? Chris Burke has been doing a post-season daily commentary on astros.com. In his piece after his game-winning home run, he says: “This has been an emotional season for me, and to sum up today, I kind of have to go back to that old line: How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans. You just never know what the story's going to be, where you're going to end up.” (Maybe he has a Yiddish grandmother?) After the game, Lidge remarked: "Everybody wants a guy like Chris Burke to win a game for them. He's an unselfish player and he works as hard as anybody. When he hit that ball, I just jumped over the railing, totally overwhelmed that he did it. It was just awesome." Ensberg’s 2 cents: "The guy is just a flat-out winner." And Bagwell: "He's got a lot of confidence in himself, and he should. But he's a tremendous team player. He roots for everybody. He wants to learn, learn, learn about the game. Today, it was typical us -- somebody else came up big." Burke had originally come into the game in the 10th inning, to pinch run for Berkman.

What was Garner going to do if Clemens wore out before someone scored a run? Clemens said he would have stayed in as long as it took. Oswalt, who had pitched into the 8th inning the previous evening, said he could have gone one inning. But according to the post-game interview, Garner had other ideas: He would have gone with Jason Lane! Lane had been a pitcher when he was in college at USC. "I talked to him over the course of the season. I do have a habit of using all the players, and if we get into a situation where you have to do that, you always like to know who you might be able to use in a situation.” Another one of Garners contingency plans: “Once I use all my players, I'd feel very comfortable having Brandon Backe as a position player.” Backe was an outfielder until 2003, when he was retreaded as a pitcher. Garner used him as a pinch hitter in the 14-inning Astros-Nationals game in July. (I know; I was there.)

How tired were the players by the end of the game? Towards the end of the game, Bagwell was helping his good buddy Ausmus up the dugout stairs. Biggio drank two pots of coffee during the game.

Disappointments:

Backe got beat up and didn’t last long on the mound. He got off to a great start for a couple of innings, but the third inning undid him. He gave up 2 walks, hit a batter, and then gave up the grand slam to LaRoche. But to his credit, after he was pulled in the 5th, he didn’t go off to sulk or shower. He stayed in the dugout cheering for his team: "As soon as I was taken out of the game, I became a fan. I was cheering them on as much as I would if I were sitting in the stands. I'm so happy to be here. It's like a dream come true."

I thought for a moment in the 10th inning that Luke Skywalker finally had his big chance to be a hero. With the score tied, 6-6, and one out, Scott hit a 3-2 pitch out into the bleachers in left field. He – and most of the crowd – thought it was a home run, winning the game. But the umpire called it a foul ball after it apparently hit the foul pole. Back to the plate… where he grounded out.

Poor Bagwell! Since he can’t stay in the game to field, he gets at most one chance to play per game – as a pinch hitter. When he got that moment in this game, in the 10th with runners on first and second and 2 outs, I was hoping that he’d get to be the hero of the game. Just a single… But he flied out to left. Then he had to spend the rest of the game on the bench watching. At least if the Astros make the World Series, he could be the DL for a couple of games.

Adam LaRoche had a great high moment when he hit his grand slam in the 3rd inning. He had a much lower moment when he was tagged out at the plate in the 7th inning, after less than a full-speed dash around the bases, and brilliant fielding by Ausmus. But his lowest moment was when they lost: "It was frustrating, and I've said it before, if I knew we were going to lose in the first round, I'd rather not be in the playoffs at all. There's nothing worse than having to go home with a loss." I’m sure that all of the Astros would have been horribly disappointed not to have won. But I can’t imagine that many of them would have rather not have made the playoffs at all! After 14 consecutive division titles, maybe the Braves need to work a little harder to get to the playoffs, so they’ll appreciate what a special experience it is to be there at all?

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

The Yankees just barely beat the Angels, 3-2, to tie the series at 2 games each. Back to California for the finale tomorrow.

Final 18th 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 R H E

Atlanta 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 13 0

Houston « 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 10 1

W: R. Clemens (1-1) L: J. Devine (0-1)