The Stros’ bullpen could not hold a lead again as the Cards’ scored two runs in the eighth to break a tie and beat the Stros 6-4 and take a 2-0 lead in the NLCS on a cold, rainy night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Thursday night.
The Stros took a 3-0 lead in this one on solo yaks by Beltran and Ensberg, and Berkman‘s run scoring single. Pete Munro pitched brilliantly for 4 2/3 innings and actually had the third out in the fourth, but the ailing JK (bruised knee and calf) could not get to the bag in time to turn a sure fire double play ball to end the inning.
After that, Munro gave up a walk, a two run tater to Larry Walker and a base hit to Pujols to cut the lead to 3-2, and then Harville served up his second big hit in two nights as Rolen took him out of the yard. Presto, the Cards led 4-3. The Stros came back to tie it in the seventh on Berkman’s double and Ensberg’s single, but then Miceli served up a back-to-back gopher balls to Pujols and Rolen in the eighth to allow the Redbirds to head to Houston with a 2-0 series lead. Game, set, match.
I was talking to a friend earlier today in which I proposed that the Stros simply walk Pujols and Edmonds (and maybe Walker, too) when anybody other than The Rocket, Roy O or Lidge is pitching and see what happens. Frankly, my sense is that the Stros could not do much worse than they did in past two games pitching to these guys.
Clemens and Oswalt are ready to go next for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Sunday at the Juice Box in Houston. This is a plucky Stros’ team, so I am not ready to count them out, yet. But Clemens and Oswalt really need to pitch long into each of these games so that they had the ball directly to Lidge. We’ll worry about who pitches after Backe in Game 5 later.