So Much For Lights Out

For a team like the Chicago White Sox, a late-inning, one-run deficit is a minor obstacle, a narrow ditch. For teams like the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals, teams that have struggled to score throughout this NLCS, a one-run deficit is a vast canyon.

So last night, when Houston trailed St. Louis by a run entering the bottom of the seventh inning, I had already accepted the fact they were going to lose. When it isn't your team in these high stakes, high stress games, it's easier and much less emotionally draining to give up on them early.

Even when two men reached base with only one out, I was still at peace. I had seen the Astros develop the same promising situation in the first, second and fourth innings and only produce one run from it all, so I wasn't impressed.

I was calm in my resignation until Lance Berkman's bat made contact with the ball. If events had gone the way I assumed they would, the ball would have reached the shortstop's glove in two hops and Berkman would have been on the backend of an inning-ending double play. Instead, he belted a three-run home run.

That changed everything. It not only gave the Astros the lead, but it also rekindled my hopes for Houston. With the Cardinals behind by two runs, I was certain Houston would clinch the series. How could St. Louis possibly overcome two whole canyons?

I asked that question when Brad "Lights Out" Lidge was on the mound facing David Eckstein with two outs (consecutive strikeouts) in the top of the ninth. I asked the same question when he faced Jim Edmonds after Eckstein singled to left and stole second base uncontested. And I asked it a third time when Albert Pujols stepped to the plate after Lidge walked Edmonds.

Pujols got sick of the stupid question and replied with a three-run homer that had enough distance on it to cross two canyons and half the state of Texas. The ball hit the wall of the Astrodome with such force that stadium officials should have an engineer inspect it for structural damage. Lidge managed to strike out Reggie Sanders, the next man he faced, but it was already too late. Pujols put St. Louis ahead to stay. The final score was St. Louis 5, Houston 4.

Lidge was just one strike away from sending his team to their first World Series in franchise history. Now he and the rest of the Astros will have to sweat it out tomorrow night in Game 6, back in St. Louis, for any hope of a championship. So much for lights out.