Please excuse me for having a hard time getting the Stros off of my mind. Amid the incredible performances over the past several days of Beltran, Berkman, Backe and Kent, Baseball Prospectus‘ ($) Joe Sheehan reminds us of the following:

Backe’s tremendous work enabled Phil Garner to skip over the questionable pitchers on his staff and go right to Brad Lidge in the ninth inning. Garner finally used Lidge in a tie game, and was rewarded with an insanely dominant outing. Lidge pitched in all three games in Houston, throwing five innings, allowing one hit and two walks, and striking out nine. He threw 56 strikes in 77 pitches, going after every hitter he faced.
There’s no better pitcher in baseball right now than Brad Lidge, and I say that with apologies to Johan Santana.