Lifesaver
Pujols' titanic blast will be remembered, but St. Louis would have flatlined without the resuscitation powers of David Eckstein
One strike. That was all the best closer in the National League needed to send Houston to its first World Series. No one was on, and at the plate was this little shortstop who could be mistaken for a bat boy. That is, if we didn’t know any better.
But we know better. We know David Eckstein is one of just two Cardinals with a ring (Reggie Sanders the other.) We also know David Eckstein doesn’t strike out (one per 14.3 at-bats on the year). And he definitely doesn’t strike out with the series on the line.
And sure enough, he yanked the 1-2 pitch into the hole past diving third baseman Morgan Ensberg. Before you knew it, Jim Edmonds had walked, and a legend in the making strode to the plate.
Everyone watching will remember the moment Albert Pujols cruelly ripped out the hearts of 43,000 raucous Astros fans, a mere two innings after Lance Berkman sent them into a state of pure ecstasy. Had the roof been open, the missile Pujols hit would have left the stadium and possibly injured a pedestrian…in Dallas.
That swing did cement Pujols’ status as the best hitter in baseball. He is also emerging as the most clutch postseason hitter of our day. With a .346 BA, a .429 OBP, 10 HR, and 29 RBI in 36 playoff games, Jeter better hope Pujols never gets a second crack at a World Series, or he may as well just move over. (By the way, his October stats have risen each year; he’s getting better. Scary.)
But Pujols was not the one that kept the Cardinals alive; it was Mighty Mouse. When the 0 for 4 Pujols came up, Cards fans had regained a little hope, could at least bear to look at the television screen. When Eckstein sat at 1-2, Cardinal fans’ morale had basically flatlined.
But they should have known their season wouldn’t end on Eckstein’s watch. He wouldn’t let it. So the human defibrillator delivered another jolt, and managed to generate a weak pulse in St. Louis.
Despite being stranded in scoring position once already and watching futile Cardinal at-bats all day, he kept trying.
"Clear!" ZAP!
Nothing.
The middle of the Cardinals lineup was lifeless against Andy Pettitte. Pujols stranded four. Sanders, five. Larry Walker, three. The three had one hit combined. The vaunted Cardinals offense was as vibrant for nearly four games as Jim Tracy on tranquilizers.
But Eckstein stepped up after Brad Lidge made John Rodriguez and John Mabry utterly foolish. And after he watched two strikes, the crowd expected to erupt, and soon. After all, Houston had lost just one game they led entering the ninth all year. But Eckstein resisted.
Then Lidge made his biggest mistake. He walked Jim Edmonds on five pitches. The tying run was 4 for 16 in the series with zero RBIs. He had one hit in 12 at bats and no walks in his career against Lidge. Talk all you want about the mistake of pitching to Pujols. It was not pitching to Edmonds that was more ridiculous than the ultra-modest 412-foot tag they slapped on Pujols’ bomb.
But it all started with Eckstein, who reached base three times Monday. He embodies everything the words "pest" and "scrappy" stand for. He was hit by a pitch on the arm and a foul ball on the knee. And no one in baseball had more two strike hits this season. He had two Monday, and scored both times.
Now, after Eckstein’s paddles sent the jolt to awake the slumbering Pujols, the Cardinals get to bring the Astros home with them. They return to the best fans in baseball, to a stadium that has, at most, five games left. And no one in Cardinal Land wants the last game at Busch to end with the Astros’ first pennant.
The Astros are set up well to rebound. Roy Oswalt has won 40 games in two years, tops in the majors. Roger Clemens is Roger Clemens.
But blows like this don’t repair themselves. Just ask the 2004 Yankees. The 2002 Giants. The 1986 Angels. The 1986 Red Sox. The 1985 Cardinals. Blowing a clincher in the late innings of the playoffs has historically resulted in hangovers worse than any John Daly has never seen.
Let’s also not forget, last year the Cardinals returned home down 3-2 and won an epic series. Mark Mulder is no cupcake, and matched Oswalt pitch-for-pitch in Game 2, save for one unearned run. And if there is a Game 7, all bets are off. After all, the Rocket himself took the loss there last year against Jeff Supan.
That 2004 NLCS was by far the best league championship that no one paid attention to, thanks to the Red Sox. Fortunately, David Eckstein gave the baseball world, and more importantly the Cardinals, a chance to relive that classic from last October, and for one last hoorah at Busch, which will be rocking on Wednesday.
"Clear!"
