Dramatic...How Dramatic...You wont believe it.

[Indu WangZi]

What I recently found out was that what Pujols did tonight was not only the greatest HR in my lifetime, but almost nearly impossible to pull off.

From 1979 to 1990, home teams had a 2-run lead with 2 outs and no one on in the 9th 1813 times, and won 1797 of the games -- 99.12%.

So, our chanes to win were .88%...miniscule. Almost a done deal..every Astro fan felt the same way.

Well..Mr. Albert Pujols has shown us why he will go down as one of the greats.

[Ohio Blues]

This calls for a new thread.

Just kidding with you Wanger [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

[Indu WangZi]

.88%...88%

Amazing..that my friends is how you define "destiny".

we come back and get on a tear like the Sux last year..

6-0, baby....try to stop us.

[Schwahalala]

QUOTE(Indu WangZi @ Oct 18 2005, 02:05 AM) Quoted post

.88%...88%

Amazing..that my friends is how you define "destiny".

we come back and get on a tear like the Sux last year..

6-0, baby....try to stop us. [/b][/quote]

You know I am with you Wang.

[Glovey]

QUOTE(Schwahalala @ Oct 18 2005, 05:32 AM) Quoted post

QUOTE(Indu WangZi @ Oct 18 2005, 02:05 AM) Quoted post

.88%...88%

Amazing..that my friends is how you define "destiny".

we come back and get on a tear like the Sux last year..

6-0, baby....try to stop us. [/b][/quote]

You know I am with you Wang.
[/b][/quote]
Let's beat these fuckers.

[Indu WangZi]

QUOTE(GloveSaveandaBeauty @ Oct 18 2005, 04:38 AM) Quoted post

QUOTE(Schwahalala @ Oct 18 2005, 05:32 AM) Quoted post

QUOTE(Indu WangZi @ Oct 18 2005, 02:05 AM) Quoted post

.88%...88%

Amazing..that my friends is how you define "destiny".

we come back and get on a tear like the Sux last year..

6-0, baby....try to stop us. [/b][/quote]

You know I am with you Wang.
[/b][/quote]
Let's beat these fuckers. [/b][/quote]

++

[Fred Garvin]

I'm feelin ya dogg.

[mw.2]

I kept thinking, where is Wang coming up with 88%?!!?!?!

Then I saw the .

.88%!!!

Wow.

[Moon Man]

And the Stros were something like 77-1 this year when leading in the ninth - best in the majors I believe.

I hope Lidge is huddled in a corner somewhere sobbing.

Moon

[Razzy]

Wow. I think this means we are destined to go out a winner. Fitting for the last year of Busch.

This guy thinks Pujols should have been walked. Dont know if I agree or not, but here is the article...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writ...ros.NLCS.game5/

One that got away
Astros should have never let Pujols get to the plate


HOUSTON -- The last person the Astros wanted at the plate Monday night with a chance to beat them -- the one player they could least afford to let anywhere near the plate in a critical situation -- was Albert Pujols.

And yet there was Pujols, in the batter's box with two outs in the top of the ninth. And there he was taking a mighty swing at a mighty fat pitch. And there was the ball flying deep to left-center field off the Astros' best reliever.

And suddenly there were 43,000 hoarse Houston revelers, interrupted in mid-revel.

One strike away from the first World Series in the history of the franchise, the Astros did the absolutely unthinkable in letting Pujols, maybe the best player in baseball, beat them in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series with a monstrous three-run home run. And now everybody has to go back to St. Louis for Game 6 on Wednesday, a situation that strikes eerily close to last postseason, when the Cardinals, down by this same 3-2 margin in the best-of-seven series, won the final two games of the NLCS in St. Louis.

The Astros never, ever, ever should have let this thing get this far.

"You give someone like that an opportunity like that, he's going to hurt you," said the Cardinals' Larry Walker, who already had accepted a few pats on the back in the dugout for a career that, it seemed, had ended. "He's too good."

Everyone in Houston's Minute Maid Park -- and a lot more people in living rooms around the world -- knew that the Astros couldn't let Pujols get to the plate in the top of the ninth. And, really, there was no reason to think that he would. Pujols, the Cardinals' slugging first baseman, was due up fifth. And the Astros had Brad Lidge, their stud closer, on the mound.

Lidge did his thing at first, striking out pinch hitters John Rodriguez and John Mabry to start the inning. In the Houston dugout, players exchanged high-fives and did little dances, all noted by the Cardinals.

Lidge got two strikes on the next batter, leadoff man David Eckstein. But Eckstein pulled a pitch through the left side of the infield for a single, past a diving Morgan Ensberg.

Then Lidge, finally starting to show some cracks, did the second-worst thing he did all night -- he walked the next batter, center fielder Jim Edmonds, on five pitches.

"You have to let Edmonds hit the ball," said Astros manager Phil Garner. "You can't walk him and [catcher] Brad [Ausmus] knows that ... and that was a mistake."

Pujols, 0-for-4 to that point with a strikeout and three infield outs, walked to the plate with two men on and his team trailing 4-2. He swung through a slider in the dirt. The crowd hit a record for raucousness. In the Cardinals' dugout, Walker turned to a couple of teammates, looked up at the train over the left-field wall and joked, "Hit the train for a million dollars."

And then Pujols swung again.

"I've never heard 43,000 people just shut up like that," Walker said afterward. "The noise just ... wasn't there."

Lidge inexplicably left a slider over the plate, Pujols connected solidly and the ball took a no-doubt-about-it path over the stands in left, an estimated 412 feet away. You could practically hear every one of Pujols' steps as he rounded the bases.

"All I felt was me running," said Pujols, the likely NL MVP this season. "I would say it was the best base hit I ever got in my career. It doesn't get any better."

Lidge struck out the next batter, but the Astros, almost predictably, went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.

The Astros are not dead in this NLCS, not by a long shot. They still lead the series, which gives them two chances to win one game. They still have two of the game's best pitchers, Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt, ready for the next two games. The odds, if you believe in such things, still might be on the Astros' side.

But Monday was a game that they had won, a game they should have won, a game that they literally threw away by giving the best player on the other team -- some would say the best player on any team -- a fat pitch to hit in a critical situation.

It's a mistake that, potentially, could haunt this franchise for years to come.

"I hit it, and I was like 'Wow. I can't believe I did it,'" Pujols said.

Nobody could. Nobody could believe he got the chance.

[Razzy]

Well, I was wrong. It didnt say he should have been walked, just that he shouldnt have come to the plate. Duh. No shit.

[Moon Man]

The mistake was not pitching to Edmonds, as Garner says.

Moon

[ElviswasaBluesFan]

QUOTE

Lidge did his thing at first, striking out pinch hitters John Rodriguez and John Mabry to start the inning. In the Houston dugout, players exchanged high-fives and did little dances, all noted by the Cardinals.[/b][/quote]

Act like you've been there before.

Did you guys notice the way the way the Cardinals celebrated after the game?

Looked like a win in July to me.

[Razzy]

From the Houston Chronicle...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...rts/bb/3401054

Heartbreaking loss gives series a new feel
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

They've suffered other defeats. They've suffered other hurt. They have them catalogued in their hearts and minds.

But there has never been one like this. There has never been one so bizarre, gut-wrenching and crushing.

The Astros were one strike away from winning the National League pennant Monday night at Minute Maid Park. The World Series finally was within their grasp.

Tubs of champagne were wheeled into their clubhouse. Sheets of plastic were draped over their lockers. A podium was brought in for the trophy presentation.

Their ballpark was rocking with excitement and anticipation among people who had waited so long and wished so hard for this moment.

And then ...

Albert Pujols hammered a three-run home run off Brad Lidge with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Astros 5-4 in front of 43,470 mostly stunned, silent fans.

Afterward, the Astros said the things players are supposed to say in such situations. They said they still lead at 3-2 in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.

They have two chances to win one game. They said they feel good about having Roy Oswalt to start Game 6 on Wednesday.

For a franchise that has come so close so many times, for a franchise known mostly for failing in October, this defeat couldn't have been more stinging.

The Astros seemed numb. They dragged themselves back to their clubhouse moments after the plastic had been ripped down and the champagne taken away.

The clubhouse televisions were still wrapped in black plastic, a reminder of what had been lost.

The Astros milled around, answered questions, looked lost.

"Devastating," Lance Berkman said.

He used that word — devastating — several more times. He knew teams that get this close have to finish the deal.

"Hey, it's over," Craig Biggio said. "It wasn't meant to be. We've still got to win one game. We knew it wouldn't be easy."

Others said similar things.

"We've lost a lot of tough games this year," Jason Lane said. "We've battled back from losses all year."

The thing is, they had the game where they wanted it.

"If we get into the same game on Wednesday, we'll play it this way," Mike Lamb said.


Berkman blast
The Astros rallied from a 2-1 deficit on a three-run Berkman home run in the seventh. They got the ball to Lidge with a 4-2 lead in the ninth. They had failed just once this season to win a game they led after eight innings.


Lidge got them to the cusp. He struck out John Rodriguez to open the ninth. He struck out John Mabry.

He had two strikes on David Eckstein, who got his bat on a slider and singled to left.

He made matters worse by walking Jim Edmonds. That walk brought the game's most feared hitter to the plate.

He threw Pujols a slider. Swing and miss.

He threw him another. It caught too much of the plate.

"It wasn't a terrible pitch," Brad Ausmus said.

It was bad enough.

What followed was one of those moments that baseball fans in this city may remember forever.

Pujols launched a moon shot home run to left. That quickly, the NLCS was headed back to St. Louis.


Packing their bags

Lidge stood in front of his locker afterward and answered question after question. He never blinked.

"I'm going to wake up tomorrow and it's going to be a new day and I'm not going to think about it again," Lidge said.

Of course, he'll think about it. He'll think about it for at least two days. He couldn't put it out of his mind that easily.

It had seemed so different after Berkman's ball rocketed into the Crawford Boxes for a three-run home run. Teammates leaped for joy in the dugout. Fans danced in the stands.

In 44 seasons, there had been few moments of joy like this. As the Astros got through the eighth, as they got each out, as they got closer, the noise grew louder, the expectation greater. Maybe this is how the baseball gods have decided to torment this tormented franchise. Maybe they want to dangle it and then take it away.

Maybe they want it to be twice as sweet when it finally arrives.

All the Astros have to do now is pack their bags and fly to St. Louis today. They'll have a day off to gather themselves. They can win the pennant on Wednesday. Or Thursday. One win. That's what it has come down to.

"I'm glad we've got a day off," Garner said.

He hopes one is enough.

[Razzy]

The fans in Houston were all set to party...


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...rts/bb/3401124


Intersection near Minute Maid packed with fans trying to get close to game
Emotions run wild with the game being broadcast on office building
By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA and ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

With one out to go, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols turned Astros fans screams to silence, crushing a three-run homer that delayed Houston's World Series dreams until at least Wednesday.

"One out. One out away from it," was the only way a still stunned Nato Tafur could sum up his disappointment. Tafur, 31, stood at the intersection of Main and Prairie, along with an estimated 2,000 other fans, to watch the game broadcast being projected on the wall of a downtown office building.

"I'm pissed," Tafur's friend, Eric Hernandez said. "We should've walked him. That guy is powerful. I was ready to explode, I was so excited and the next thing you know ... I knew when he hit it, it was gone."

Fans from all over Houston flocked to this downtown spot which would have put them at the center of celebration had the game gone in the Astros favor.

The intersection was "the closest thing to being inside Minute Maid Park," said Tony Polichino, 22, a lifelong Astros fan.

After Lance Berkman cranked a three-run homer to give the Astros a 4-2 lead, hundreds of excited fans downtown exploded with cheers of joy and chants of "Houston, Houston, Houston," that rang into the night.

"It feels good. It's been a while since they did that," Jose Rodriguez said

At that point in the game, Astros fans had already started making post-game plans and thinking about the lineup against the American League champion Chicago White Sox.

"We're gonna turn Houston upside down," said Carlos Villegas, 22, who along with several friends, wore Astros throwback orange and yellow jerseys to "represent," he said.

The crowd, fueled by the thought of the Astros first-ever trip to the World Series, cheered and jeered throughout the night, reaching a crescendo with Berkman's blast.

"We had a lot more people down on Main Street than we were expecting," said Assistant Chief George Buenik of the Houston Police Department's tactical support command.

Police drove down the streets on motorcycles with flashing lights and stood on corners directing people to stay clear of the the light rail line that split the crowd in half. Others rode bicycles and horses trying to direct traffic and control the crowd.

"The crowds have been great," Buenik said.

With Pujols cutting short the celebration, many fans headed home immediately.

"It was still a great game," said Jose Molina, 28. "The Astros really played their hearts out."