Houston has a new hero
HOUSTON – They may not spend as much time moaning over their woeful history as their counterparts in Boston, but Houston Astros fans are very familiar with the empty feeling that follows each and every postseason nightmare.
They’ve watched their teams suffer bitter postseason defeats in 1980, ‘81, ‘86, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99 and 2001, losing all seven playoff series before breaking through this season. But never has this football-crazed town rallied around a team like it has with this year’s club.
And after the Astros beat St. Louis 3-0 on Jeff Kent’s three-run, walk-off home run off Jason Isringhausen in the ninth inning Monday night, Houston could practically smell its first World Series appearance.
The Astros snatched a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 National League Championship Series, and may send Roger Clemens to the mound in Game 6 on Wednesday night in St. Louis on just three days’ rest, although manager Phil Garner said he would sleep on it.
After a brilliant, scoreless duel between starters Brandon Backe of Houston and Woody Williams of St. Louis, who both allowed only one hit, Kent slammed a first-pitch home run off Isringhausen off the left-field facade with one out in the ninth, sending a crowd of 43,045 into hyper-drive.
The 26-year-old Backe, who had only nine career starts before this postseason with a 6-4 record, held the powerful St. Louis offense hitless for 5 2/3 innings while matched up in a scoreless duel with Williams, who shut down Houston’s lethal lineup on one first-inning single in a sterling seven-inning stint.
By the fifth, you knew it was simply going to be a matter of which team blinked first.
Backe’s only mistake came in the sixth, when Tony Womack, in a 2-for-19 slump in the NLCS, singled between first and second with two outs to break up a no-hitter. But after Larry Walker walked to put the go-ahead run in scoring position, Backe retired Albert Pujols on a first-pitch popup to second, ending the threat.
Houston’s Carlos Beltran soon showed his glove was just as valuable as his bat, making a sensational diving catch on a sinking liner by Edgar Renteria to end the seventh, and then running up the sloping hill in deep center to turn a would-be hit by Reggie Sanders into a 430-foot fly out.
Williams was lifted for pinch-hitter John Mabry in the bottom of the seventh, and Backe was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth. The Astros turned to closer Brad Lidge for the third straight game.
After Lidge struck out Walker and Pujols to end the ninth, Beltran singled leading off the bottom of the inning. After Beltran stole second with one out and Lance Berkman was intentionally walked, Kent’s no-doubt-about-it homer started the party.
Now the question is, will Houston’s Comeback Kids finally end the Astros’ 42-year World Series drought?