Brandon Backe pitched eight innings of one-hit, shutout ball and Jeff Kent hit a three run walkoff yak in the bottom of the ninth as the Stros beat the Cardinals 3-0 on Monday night at a deafening Juice Box to take a 3-2 lead in the National League Championship Series.
Backe was magnificent as he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a single to Womack. Backe ended up pitching eight innings of one hit, shutout ball, struck out four and walked only two in pitching the game of his life. For the third straight day, Brad Lidge relieved and threw a perfect ninth, including an inning ending strikeout of Pujols that generated a near volcanic eruption from the Juice Box crowd. The Cards’ Woody Williams was equally brilliant as he threw seven innings of one hit, shutout ball as Bags‘ first inning single was the only Stros hit until Beltran led off the ninth with a single.
And oh, what a ninth it was. After Beltran’s single, Bags flew out to deep right center, which brought up Berkman. After Berkman fouled off a couple of pitches, Beltran stole second easily, which left first base open. So, the Cards’ closer Isringhausen promptly walked Berkman to pitch to the righthanded hitting Kent, who promptly cranked the blue darter to deep left field on the first pitch to give the Stros the most significant home run in their 43 year history and the most dramatic since Billy Hatcher‘s improbable game tying home run in Game 6 of the 1986 NLCS. The Juice Box crowd went utterly haywire.
By the way, Beltran continues to display his marvelous talents to the national television audience in this series. As if his hitting was not enough, his diving catch in center to to rob Renteria of an extra base hit in the seventh will make every highlight reel for the rest of the playoffs. It was simply a big-time play by a budding superstar.
I doubt the Stros really need a jet, but they will fly to St. Louis on Tuesday to prepare for Game 6 on Wednesday. Although the Cards have announced that Matt Morris will start that game for the Redbirds, there is still no work on who the Stros will start. My vote is to try to win Game 6 with Munro starting, and then have Clemens on full rest and Roy O on three days rest available for Game 7, if necessary.
By the way, these two games over the past two days have been undoubtedly the most exciting sporting events that I have attended in my 45 or so years of regularly attending such events. Wow, what a weekend of baseball!