After Monday night’s rollercoaster of

After Monday night’s rollercoaster of emotion, I have to admit that last night was rather underwhelming. By yesterday morning I’d finished wallowing and recovered my confidence in the Astros and in Roy (He was nails! Nails!!) so I went into last night’s game viewing feeling good. For the first 5 innings I was even calm enough to do a little web surfing as part of my graphic design assignment for next week (researching typography assignments from other schools and writing a proposal for an assignment of my own — basically I get to choose what I want to do for my own project assignment).
What’s that saying? Momentum is only as strong as your next starting pitcher? Before the game, Fox replayed the Pujols home run complete with audio: roaring as the pitch came in, followed by absolute silence. It was stunning to hear again how quiet we got in an instant on Monday. But not last night. By the time the last few innings rolled around, I got a little nervous but not too bad, as Roy had it under control and I knew the Astros would not make the same mistakes twice. I only worried briefly when Grudzielanek got the 2-out hit. I knew the ‘Stros would pull through. I was a bit disappointed that Lidge didn’t come in to finish the game though; I know it wasn’t a save situation, but having Lidge do the 9th would have been a fitting end after Monday’s fireworks. I am more than happy enough with Qualls and Wheeler shutting down the Cards.
When Jason Lane finally had the 27th out firmly planted in his glove, I just smiled. I shook Jason a bit, going “We’re in the World Series!” but I mostly just smiled. God I wish they had won at home on Monday night when I was screaming so much I made myself light-headed. But somehow it still felt right. After all the bedlam of Monday night, it was nice to just see the ‘Stros come back to dominate the Cardinals in Game 6. The 4-run winning margin was the most of any of the six games. Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell didn’t even immediately run onto the field; they just looked at each other, smiled, and hugged. Later, as he was interviewed on ESPN, Biggio had tears in his eyes. Awwwww.
Interesting stat: Eight of the nine starters last night have never played for any team but the Astros. Only Brad Ausmus has.
One of my favorite parts of a big win is savoring all the great descriptions of various moments in the game, like when Oswalt totally tied up Pujols in the 1st inning and just made him look stupid…
From Kent: “Congrats on Houston’s win! I saw you hitting a home run on tv to help the Astros through in one of the Houston games. Are you going to go to a World Series game/s?” To which I can say: YES! I’m going to Game 4. Because Chris’s girlfriend’s stepdad got tickets in the lottery, and Chris is my favorite person (after Oswalt) in the ENTIRE WORLD.
Buster Olney:
“The fans in Busch Stadium stood and roared in the first inning at the introduction of Albert Pujols, who ascended from the status of popular All-Star ballplayer to living god here with his monstrous home run against the Astros on Monday. He strolled to the plate, flashbulbs popping.
Roy Oswalt was not among those worshiping, however. The Astros right-hander threw two fastballs and a cutter to get ahead one ball and two strikes, and then he pumped a 95-mph fastball up and in, which, when thrown to Pujols, is like reaching for an alligator’s tonsil: You just don’t do it.
But Pujols was overpowered, swinging feebly, striking out, and Houston catcher Brad Ausmus thought: Oswalt’s got it.”
Jayson Stark:
“This team won 15 of its first 45 games — and somehow found a way to spring off that trampoline all the way into the World Series. How’d that happen?
And this team took an Albert Pujols haymaker to the noggin Monday night, watched in amusement as the rest of the world gave it a 10-count, and then rumbled right back to rewrite the ending two days later, with a methodical 5-1 dissection of the St. Louis Cardinals.”
Richard Justice:
“You find out a lot about people in the tough times. When things were at their worst, the Astros hung together. They became closer because people like me no longer believed in them.
Early in the season, an opposing player approached Adam Everett and said: ‘I guess it’s pretty bad in your clubhouse.’
Adam told him: ‘No, it’s still good.’
It’s really good today…
As the Astros were flying to St. Louis Tuesday night, the pilot announced: ‘We’ve reached our cruising altitude, and if you look out the left side of the plane, you may see a familiar object.’
He meant the baseball that Albert Pujols hit off Brad Lidge in Game 5.
The Astros decided the best way to deal with the issue was to confront it and have a few laughs. At one point, Roy Oswalt is supposed to have said: ‘Hey, Pujols’ home run almost hit the plane.’
That was their way of letting Brad Lidge – and everyone else – know it was going to be OK and that life would go on.”