It's the Astros

I wanted to put a post up yesterday afternoon about how if the Astros had any chance at all they needed an amazing outing from Oswalt if they were going to have any chance at all. Things that are way beyond my control kept me from getting to my computer yesterday, so you can either take my word for it or you can just think I'm full of crap (which I'm sure some of you do anyways). Either way, it was pretty clear last night why no pitcher in the NL has won more games than Roy Oswalt over the last two years. He placed his hard fastball with laser precision and used it to set up his braking ball when needed, which was rarely. Simply put, no one was beating Roy Oswalt last night. By the time the game got the the 7th inning the Cards were the dead team walking, lead by Jim Edmonds and his Tike Redman impersonation in center field. The Astros needed a start by Oswalt that kept the Cardinals down and let them get a lead, and he did just that. Mulder reverted to last year's second half form and flaked out in the biggest start of his career. It was almost like the pressure of the final Busch Stadium crowd ever was too much on the Cardinals.

After some thought (and some discussion) we came to a simple conclusion, no one could remember many examples of teams bouncing back from a game like Game 5 because when they do, it becomes a footnote of the series. This series will be the Roy Oswalt series, the series in which the Astros finally clinched a pennant, maybe the last stand of the great Cardinals teams of the last two years (there's going to be a lot of turnover there), and the end of Busch Stadium. The Pujols homer because a footnote that only Cardinals fans and die-hard baseball nuts will remember over time.

For some extracurricular reading, the Cardinals fans are very gracious in defeat (both Scott of Cardnilly and lboros of Viva El Birdos) while the Astros fans are just plain excited (Lisa Gray and rastronomicals). Me? I'll certainly be rooting for the Astros. They're from the Pirates division (and aren't the Cardinals) and to be perfectly honest, I want this one for Bagwell and Biggio. I can't think of two other guys who have personified one organization like they have during my lifetime. Will they win? I don't know, I'll probably post a prediction tomorrow (I'm 6-for-6 so far in the playoffs, unless you take away my Astros prediction for more or less bailing on them in the middle of the series).