the day after

Astros.com: “Astros second baseman Jeff Kent and third baseman Morgan Ensberg were conferring near the on-deck circle at Minute Maid Park moments before Kent launched his walk-off home run on Monday night to beat St. Louis, 3-0, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
“We were just wondering, since neither one of us are Killer B’s, what are we exactly?,” Ensberg said. “Are we the pollen? Are we the pollen spreaders who supply the B’s? We just figured it was time for the rest of us who aren’t Killer B’s to step up, even if we don’t have a nickname.”
Due to pressing matters awaiting Kent at the plate, the two Astros never did resolve their philosophical discussion…”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “In Game 5 of the NL Championship Series at Minute Maid Park, the Astros and the Cardinals hooked up in a memorable duel, with the drama and tension escalating to the point where you hoped someone would press a button and open the stadium’s retractable roof, just to let the steam out.”
Houston Chronicle: “Once it ended, fans did what they’ve almost never done in Houston ? refused to leave.
They stayed to cheer and celebrate. They screamed at replays of Kent’s homer as if they were living it over again. They savored the moment, the finest this franchise has had.”
Post-Dispatch: “That nugget ? actually, it’s a gleaming, brilliant pitching gem ? is Astros closer Brad Lidge. Within a dazzling (for the Astros) and disheartening (for the Cardinals) 24-hour span, Lidge has taken this NLCS and flipped it completely upside down.”
Mike Gallo via Astros.com: “Our crowd was unbelievable, again. That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard the crowd. Houston’s pumped. It’s awesome.”
Astros.com: “In between, just one hit, some amazing defense behind him, and a city full of fellow Texans chanting his name.
Of that, too, Backe was aware.
“I kind of fall back on the crowd, to tell you the truth,” Backe said. “They help me out, keep me going.”
Chronicle:”Whatever the next few games bring, whether the Astros get to the World Series or not, thank you, guys, for making this the best baseball year of my life.”
Jayson Stark via ESPN.com: “Backe was such a mystery man before this postseason, you might think he’s just some guy the Astros stumbled across walking around the Galleria. Well, even though his catcher, Brad Ausmus, concedes that “you might see him walking around the Galleria,” he is stamping himself these days as a pitcher to watch.”
More Jayson Stark: “Astros 3, Cardinals 0 — in a classic postseason baseball game that just about no one will ever tell their grandchildren they saw. Because they didn’t.
And it’s all because those bums, the Yankees and Red Sox, kept hogging TV screens all across America, in that greedy way of theirs. Maybe one of these days, they’ll figure out a way to play a game in under five hours. Maybe one of these days, somebody will notice there’s another series going on — and it’s every bit as good as that one.”
ESPN.com: “Instead, it was headed for the very top of the only center-field hill in baseball — until Beltran sprinted to the mountain peak, then smoothly backpedaled up the hill and caught it. “He didn’t just make it look easy,” Bagwell marveled. “He went up the hill backward. In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s a decent player.”
More: “A Beltran single to start the ninth. An intentional walk of Berkman — with two strikes on him — following a Beltran steal of second. And then a first-pitch NASA launch by Kent that practically tore up the left-field train tracks and threw Minute Maid Park into rarified bedlam.”