2005 SEASON
SEPTEMBER 27-28: HOUSTON @ ST LOUIS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 (Game 157) – HOUSTON @ ST. LOUIS
Houston 3, St. Louis 1
Oh man, that was beeeeyuuutiful. And just as soon as my heart slows down from 200 beats a minute, I’ll be able to write it up.
Roy Oswalt pitched a gem (as Alyson would say) tonight – 7 innings, 1 ER on 8 hits, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. He was really in command on the mound, as he won his 19th game of the season. He’ll be pitching the last game next Sunday, giving him a chance to win 20 two years in a row. The Cards were only able to score off of him on back-to-back doubles by Larry Walker and Reggie Sanders in the 6th inning.
For a while, it looked like a pitchers’ duel to the death, with neither team scoring in the first 5 innings. Matt Morris was able to keep the Astros to only a handful of singles until the 6th inning. With 2 outs, Lamb singled, and then Lane hit a big one over the center field wall. With Jason Marquis pitching (his first relief appearance this year), Biggio hit a lead-off home run in the 8th to make it 3-1.
Garner decided not to take any chances with only a 2-run lead over the Cards, who have beaten the Astros in 11 games to 3 this season (including all the games in Busch Stadium). He brought in Lidge to close, starting in the 8th. Lidge was wonderful – he knocked down Edmonds, Pujols, and Walker on 8 pitches in the bottom of the 8th. In the 9th, he gave up a leadoff walk to Reggie Sanders. The Cards brought in a rookie to pinch run, and Lidge picked him off. The next batter grounded out, then Lidge struck out the last batter on 3 strikes (his 100th K of the season). He threw 19 pitches in 2 innings for his 23rd consecutive save (a new Astros team record), his 39th save of the season. I would love to feature a nice picture of Lidge in these write ups, but unfortunately the AP photos that are posted online tend to focus on starting pitchers and home runs.
The Astros wore road greys. One might wonder whether the Cards really wanted to win this game. They would actually be better off if the Astros win the Wild Card. That would set up the Cards to play in the first round of the playoffs against the Padres, who may be the first team to go to the playoffs with a losing record. Kind of a freebie. If the Phillies win the Wild Card, the Cardinals will play them in the first round of the playoffs. The Phillies could be significantly more challenging.
In other news, Biggio just made it back for the game, after a quick trip to Houston to be with his family as his mother had open-heart surgery. Apparently it went well, since he jumped on a plane and made it to St. Louis in time to start.
High points:
- Jason Lane’s home run was his 25th, a new career high for him. It also put him up to 75 RBIs for the season.
- Biggio’s home run was his 25th of the season, a new record for him. It breaks his previous record of 24, set last season. The RBI also tied him with Ryne Sandburg on the all-time RBI list. At age 39, on a one-year contract, Bidge is at his best. And here I was worried that it might be his last season…!
- The Astros generated a little excitement in the top of the 9th. With 2 outs, Ausmus singled. Bagwell came in to pinch-hit, and got a single. (He tripped getting out of the box after he hit the ball, but they don’t take away points for lack of grace.) Willie T walked to load the bases. Biggio, who had homered in his previous at-bat was at the plate with 2 outs and the bases loaded… and he grounded out. I suppose that this could go in the Disappointments list. But it was exciting, and the Good Guys won.
Disappointments:
- Ausmus was hit by a pitch on his throwing hand in the 5th inning. He seemed to be in serious pain, which is unusual – he generally is the stoic type. The idea of Ausmus being injured and sidelined for the rest of the season (a la Ensberg or Taveras in similar batting accidents) is terrible. I can’t even imagine the Astros finishing off the year and going to the playoffs with Chavez and Quintero behind the plate. Roger Clemens would be sorely displeased. Ausmus’ continuing presence seems to be a condition for his possibly re-signing for next year.
- Jason Marquis put in 2 innings of relief pitching, his first stint in the bullpen since 2003. But unfortunately he didn’t come up to bat against Oswalt, who still owes him a bop on the ass for hitting him on the hand in the 5th inning of the game on July 16th.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- With the Nats official out of the Wild Card race, they are back to the Good Guys category for good. They trounced the Marlins, who have totally fallen apart the past couple of weeks, 11-1. Dontrelle, starting for Florida, was more than foiled in his attempt to get his 23rd win – he was slammed. He only lasted 4 innings, and gave up 9 runs, 5 of them earned. I am hoping that the Nats will take heart from this late-season success and decide to put some effort into the rest of their games, even though they aren’t going to the playoffs. Of course, my concern for them is self-interested; they finish off the season playing those pesky Phillies.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- Those lovely New York Mets boys did good work tonight, beating the Phillies for the second game in a row, 3-2. I jumped back and forth between the Astros and Phillies games on mlb.tv. Hard to cheer for the Mets, but playoff aspirations make strange bedfellows, and this loss puts the Phillies 2½ games behind the Astros in the Wild Card race. At this point, these are the only two teams left in the race. So go, Mets, and hopefully the Nats will help out too.
- Pittsburgh beat Chicago, 5-3. The game doesn’t matter for the playoffs, but I want the Cubbies in a losing mood when they come to Houston to finish the season.
- Atlanta beat Colorado, 12-3. The Braves finally clinched their division lead.
- In a bizarre turn of events, all of the contenders in the tight AL races lost tonight.
- oBoston won the first game of a double header against Toronto (makeup for last night’s rain out), 3-1, but lost the night game 7-5.
- The Yankees were totally humiliated by Baltimore (the losingest team in the AL since the All Star game), 17-9. The Yankees went through 8 pitchers, including starter Mussina, who gave up 5 ERs in his 1 2/3 innings. Bummer for Yankees Gary Sheffield, who hit 2 home runs, including a grand slam, but his team lost.
- In the AL Central race, the White Sox and the Indians both lost one-run games, leaving Cleveland 2 runs behind Chicago – and still tied for the AL Wild Card race with the Yankees and Red Sox.
Final123456789RHEHouston 000002010380St. Louis 000001000181W: R. Oswalt (19-12) L: M. Morris (14-10) S: B. Lidge (39)
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005 (Game 158) – HOUSTON @ ST. LOUIS
Houston 7, St. Louis 6
This win was HUGE.
The Astros, who had not won in Busch Stadium since last September, swept a series against the Cards – the only time this whole season that the Cards were swept. Never mind that it was only 2 games. Winning in St. Louis is huge -- especially a game that was a sure-thing for the Cards with candidate CYA-winner Chris Carpenter on the mound. The Astros know now that (a) they can beat the Cards, (b) they can beat the Cards in St. Louis, and (c) Chris Carpenter’s real name is not “Drayton” – he doesn’t own them after all. These are all pretty important things to know if the Astros want to go to the World Series this year.
It was not an easy win. The score see-sawed back and forth. I went from glee (Berkman and Lamb hitting back-to-back homers off of Carpenter in the 5th to take a 4-2 lead) to despair (giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the same inning). The lead swapped back and forth, hung in a tie, and then it was the 9th inning with Jason Isringhausen on the mound. Taveras got on board the usual way – an infield single. Ensberg hit a double to left, and Willie T tore through the bases to score, to take the lead 7-6. The Astros failed to score Ensberg, and went into the bottom of the 9th with a one-run lead.
I have a number of tricks for dealing with stress during Astros games. Since I don’t bite my nails, I sometimes just use the nail clippers to trim them down to nubs. Sometimes I floss. Sometimes I get a glass of red wine, or a refill or two. Sometimes I just pace around the house, afraid to see the fateful plays that will cause the Astros to lose if I’m watching. Tonight I was so nervous in the bottom of the 9th that I went in my room and closed the door, because I didn’t want to hear the St. Louis fans cheering when they got the winning run.
Where’s my faith? Did I really think that Brad Lidge was too tired from his 2 innings last night? He was awesome. It only took 11 pitches for him to finish off the Cards, 1-2-3, for his 40th save.
The Cards don’t really need to win any more this season – they’ve already long-since clinched their playoff spot (back in June?). But it must be disappointing for them to drop 9 out of their last 13 games. And for Reggie Sanders to hit 2 homers in a game they lost. And for Chris Carpenter to give up a bunch of runs for the second start in a row (6, 5 earned), missing in his last opportunity to catch up with Dontrelle’s 22 wins. And he bumped his ERA up to 2.83, so he may finish the season in 5th place, behind Clemens (1.89), Willis, Pettitte, Martinez (2.82). Will that affect his Cy Young chances? Maybe not, but it’s not as nice as going out with a big hurrah. Well, he did hit two doubles – the only extra-base hits he’s had all season, so that’s something.
High points:
- Garner switched Willie T and Biggio in the lineup tonight, trying Bidge in the leadoff role, with Taveras second. The two have virtually identical on-base percents, but Garner may have been thinking that Biggio could get himself on base, and then Willie T could bunt him over, probably making it to first safely as well. But who knows what Garner was thinking. All he would say was: "I just thought I'd try this.”
- Ensberg hasn’t been knocking out home runs recently, but he’s getting hits. He was 4 for 5 tonight, including 3 singles and his game-winning RBI double in the 9th. That RBI was #100 for the season.
- Backe started tonight’s game, but he wasn’t really part of the news. He lasted only 4 1/3 innings, leaving with the Astros up 4-3, and runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Gallo came in and let the 3rd base runner score on a sac fly. And then Strickland relieved him, giving up a homerun (one of Sanders’ two) to score the other. So Backe ended up with 5 ERs, and a no-decision.
- After Gallo and Strickland finished giving up runs in the 5th, that was it for Cards scoring opportunities. The Astros relievers in the last 4 innings were excellent: Two scoreless innings from Springer, a perfect 8th from Qualls, and a Lights-out 9th from Lidge. This kind of relief pitching in the post-season would be a dream. Only second to the dream where the starter pitches a complete game.
- Go Luke Skywalker! In the 6th, with 1 out and the Astros down 6-4, Luke came up to pinch hit. Ausmus was on 1st base, courtesy of a strikeout/wild pitch. I’m thinking (as usual), “No time like the present, Luke, for your first major league homer…” He didn’t get the home run, but he did hit a big booming double to score Ausmus. Taveras hit a single and knocked in Luke to tie the game.
- Lane continues to contribute at the plate – he went 2 for 4 with the Astros first RBI (#76) of the night. I think he’s going to be a big player for the team next year.
Disappointments:
- Bagwell came in to pinch hit, with the score tied 6-6 and one out in the 8th. Alas, it was not his night for heroics – he struck out looking on 3 pitches. I do believe that was his disgusted look as he walked back to the dugout.
- Sometime before the season ends, it would be nice to have just one nice huge scoring game that isn’t nerve-wracking. One that’s just a hoot, with lots of home runs and stolen bases, and great pitching only on one side (ours). Actually, that would be a nice thing for Sunday’s game, especially if the Astros can clinch the Wild Card before then. Is that too much to ask?
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- The Nationals beat the Marlins again tonight, 11-7, to sweep the 3-game series. Hopefully these wins have whetted the Nats’ taste for victory, as they finish up the season against those Pesky Phillies.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- The F-ing Mets couldn’t make it a sweep, as the Phillies roared back to life, trashing New York 16-6. Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to 33 games. Though the win was impressive, the Phillies failed to gain on the Astros tonight, knocking the magic number down to 2.
- Pittsburgh beat Chicago in an afternoon game, 3-2. Hopefully, it will make the Cubs despondent, not desperate to win in Houston.
- In the tight AL races, it wasn’t good for my preferred teams. Boston lost and the Yankees won. The Indians lost and the White Sox won. These sets of teams are due to play each other in the final series of the season, so it should be an exciting weekend for AL fans.
Final123456789RHEHouston « 0001320017121St. Louis 0011400006101W: C. Qualls (6-4) L: J. Isringhausen (1-2) S: B. Lidge (40)
