Cards Game 5: Incredible!

I know it's a bit late, and if you haven't seen the footage, you've probably been living under a rock, but the Cardinals Game 5 of the National League Series was nothing short of amazing. Facing elimination down 3-1 in the series, and after holding a 2-1 lead for most of the game, the Cards saw Lance Berkman hit a 3 run homerun put the icing on the Astros cake. Going into the top of the ninth, the Cards were down 4-2 and there was no joy in St. Louis.

The stadium in Houston was a madhouse, with a deafening roar continuing for the last couple of innings. With two outs in the top of the ninth, the Astro fans and the Astros dugout were going nuts and jumping up and down; they were going to the Series. They were ecstatic. This was it! Two down and they needed at least two runs to tie. It was in the bag.

Fox Sports even picked Berkman as the game MVP as if it was over.

David Eckstein was at the plate, the scrappy 5'7" shortstop squaring off against perhaps the best pitcher in the league. It was all but over. Nobody on base, 2 outs. The roar was so loud you could barely think, and the count ran to two strikes against Eckstein. Then he caught a pitch and gutted a shot through the infield and made it to first safely.

The power hitter Jim Edmunds came to the plate, and with amazing self control, took a walk. Now it was "Lights Out" Lidge, the league's best closer, against Albert Pujols, perhaps the best hitter in the league. But Pujols was 0 for 3 for the game. Pujols swung at a low and away pitch and the crowd went into a frenzy. They could taste it. Then......

As Keith Olberman put it, Pujols, "hit the ball out of an indoor park."

And it wasn't just a homerun, it was a shot that sailed up into the further reaches of the rafters. A blast of amazing proportion.

But what was even more amazing, if that's possible, is the fact that, at that second, before the ball had even landed, while it was still soaring through space, the entire Astros stadium went silent as a tomb.

It was as if someone hit the mute button. No groans, no moans. Nothing. Just silence.

All you could hear was the sound of thousands of Astro fans gears grinding to a stop. It was mass shock. And I for one, found it particularly delicious.

And the miraculous win sends the series back to St. Louis and Busch Stadium, which gets to see at least one more game before it suffers the wrecking ball.

As posted at Capital Fax, here's a place where you can listen to 5 different calls of the play.

Cards, Astros at it again for Game 6 tonight.