Houston – The line drive was a rocket, the type where the hitter feels nothing on contact.
The meeting of the ball and the bat was dazzling, turning 43,470 numb fans at Minute Maid Park into an instant antacid commercial.
A lot of games that stick in memory aren’t really as good as we think. Long after the players involved in Monday night’s Game 5 of the National League Championship Series have retired, recollection won’t be a problem.
With one violent swing from Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals went from Bye-Bye Birdies to soaring back to Busch Stadium. Pujols authored one of the most dramatic home runs in postseason history, sending the Cardinals to an improbable 5-4 victory over the stunned Houston Astros with his two-out, three-run shot in the ninth inning.
“When I hit it, it was like ‘Wow!”‘ said Pujols, who has authored more game-winning RBIs over the past two seasons than any other player in baseball. “I have never heard a stadium get that quiet.”
The silence spoke volumes about the majestic shot that crashed into a windowpane 80 feet above the Minute Maid Park field. This wasn’t Kirk Gibson off Dennis Eckersley, but it belongs in the conversation. The Cardinals sat just two strikes from extinction, their gasps almost audible above the roar of the delirious crowd.
Astros closer Brad Lidge stood on the mound, with history strapped across his broad shoulders. From former President Bush and wife Barbara to the father and son fighting back tears in section 118 behind home plate, everyone not wearing red believed that 44 years of Astros frustration would evaporate into a massive celebration.
No one is trusted more with a lead than Lidge, who makes a living turning out lights and shutting doors. He quickly retired the first two hitters in the ninth, sending David Eckstein to the plate. Belying his 5-foot-7 frame, Eckstein ranks as one of baseball’s biggest pests. As Pujols would say later: “He treats every at-bat like it’s the seventh game of the World Series. It’s amazing.”
Eckstein grinded, scratched, grunted before delivering a solid single to left field. For Cardinals fans, this was a hit of biblical proportions. Remember these are supporters who believe the words to Don McLean’s “American Pie” are “the three men I admire most, Walker, Edmonds and Albert Pujols.”
As Eckstein returned from the interview room, wearing flip-flops and an ice pack strapped to his left knee, the wives and team executives standing outside the clubhouse gave him a standing ovation.
“He remembered to breathe,” manager Tony La Russa put it in so many words.
If Eckstein unnerved Lidge, the subsequent walk to Jim Edmonds angered him. Lidge admitted he became “too picky.” That left baseball at its naked beauty: the game’s best hitter against its premier closer.
There was talk of an intentional walk when manager Phil Garner trotted to the mound, but it was dismissed. The Astros didn’t make it this far, with arms reach of their first World Series, by playing scared.
“You don’t put the tying run on second base,” Astros catcher Brad Ausmus snarled. “That would be asinine.”
Lidge unleashed a devastating slider, producing a flailing swing from Pujols. The former Cherry Creek star didn’t waver. He went again to the slider, his yellow hammer.
If only baseballs had strings. As soon as Lidge released the pitch, he wanted it back.
“It was a mistake. I got it elevated,” said Lidge, demonstrating class in addressing reporters for several minutes. “It’s tough. This game is a roller coaster of emotions. We have gone through this before. I believe this team is going to win.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
