NFW!
Posted by enrico | Under Sports Monday Oct 17, 2005The subject line refers to how I felt at the top of the 9th inning of the Cardinals vs. Astros playoff game. The ’stros came in on a three-game winning streak making the series 3-1, playing their last game at home, momentum clearly in their favor at this stage in the game and series. In fact, the Astros were up 4-2 at the top of the 9th with Lidge pitching (relieving a good game by Pettitte) and had the Cards at 2 outs, the count 1-2: one strike away from the NL Championship and FINALLY a World Series appearance.
*crack*
A base hit. Then what seemed like an endless stream of bad pitches led to a walk. This was followed up with Pujol’s home run, making the score 5-4 Cardinals. An impotent bottom 9th by Astros batting sealed the deal. There was one other sound heard, if you strained hard enough to hear it:
*choke*
It’s like a tennis championship match: one player has match point, the opponent down however many breaks or sets, and say match point player is serving, loses a point. Loses another point. Deuce. Ad out. Service break. Oops. Several missed opportunities. Then the opponent keeps winning, breaks back, etc. and slowly claws their way until they actually win. This game wasn’t that bad, but the “sets” are really the game outcomes. We had championship point and we better damn well not let them come back two more times.