Our seats for the Astros

Our seats for the Astros game last night were in Section 256. For those not familiar with Minute Maid Park, section 256 is about as far as you can possibly get from home plate. Thus when the 0-0 pitcher’s duel ended with the Astros scoring in the bottom of the 9th on a rather confusing play, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that those of us in section 256 didn’t have the slightest idea of what had just happened. We saw the home plate umpire signal safe, but even that took a moment.
As it turns out, even the players weren’t sure what had happened. “I hit the ball, saw Cirillo grab it and step on first. Then, I was confused,” said Aubrey Huff. “I don’t care, we got the win, and that’s what matters.”
We stood in the stands to watch the game highlights, and after seeing the replay, we still weren’t sure what happened. We debated it the whole way to the car. This morning, I’m finally getting myself cleared up on the play.
From Astros.com:
“The question Astros players wanted answered: How was Huff’s game-winner scored?
“Is it a fielder’s choice?” Huff asked.
“It’s a fielder’s … something,” Lamb replied.
Actually, Huff was credited with a walk-off RBI groundout. No joke. He came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth against reliever Jose Capellan and scorched a hard grounder down the first-base line.
Brewers first baseman Jeff Cirillo made the stab, dove toward the bag for the forceout and fired a throw to the plate. Fortunately for the Astros, the out at first eliminated the force at home, where Lamb beat catcher Damian Miller’s tag.”
Sounds simple enough now. But it sure was confusing last night! The bases were loaded, with Berkman on first. All Cirillo really needed to do was tag first base and then tag Berkman, who was also confused and didn’t run anywhere — he just stood on first, apparently thinking it might have been a line drive. But Cirillo’s snag carried him a bit into foul territory, and he tagged the base, and then somehow Berkman got back on first base safely, which was open again after Cirillo tagged it. So he threw home, where Miller didn’t realize that he no longer had a force out. Lamb slid past him. Safe, score, Astros win!
It must be added that Willy Taveras played some outstanding center field last night, and the Astros would not have been in a position to win 1-0 if Willy hadn’t 1) gunned down Jeff Cirillo trying to stretch a double into a triple in the 4th, 2) made a catch almost at the wall in the 6th, and 3) made a spectacular diving catch with the bases loaded in the 7th for the 3rd out.