It was a high heat slider.....Puljos just did good....man did he smak that one out of the ball park!
From Houston:
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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
Oct. 18, 2005, 1:56AM
Pujols answers Cards' prayers
Three-run blast in 9th forces Astros to pack bags, head to St. Louis
By DALE ROBERTSONCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
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THE JUSTICE & MCCLAIN SHOW: Pujols didn't want the Cardinals' 100-win, Central Division championship march to end with him in the dugout or the on-deck circle, for that matter. He wanted to be in the batter's box, taking the best that Brad Lidge had to offer. So, although he was due up fifth in the Cardinals's last-gasp ninth Monday night, Pujols came in from the field and immediately pulled his batting gloves on.
"I just did a little prayer," he said, "that I hopefully I might be the last guy to make that out."
Lost in translation? A little. But everybody knows what he meant.
And everybody who cares about baseball in Houston knows what he did. Pujols, generally acknowledged as the game's best hitter of the early 21st century, took a two-out, two-strike Lidge slider and whacked it so hard into the Crawford Boxes that Astros left-fielder Lance Berkman barely had time to flinch.
Cards' ticket home
Three runs scored because of that swing and, three outs later, the Cardinals were taking the NLCS back to Busch Stadium after a 5-4 victory that hurt the Astros and their fans as badly as anything before it ever did.
"I was praying, 'just give me the strength, Lord, to ... hopefully come through for my teammates," Pujols said. Earlier in the game, I hadn't. I had chances to drive some runs in (he'd stranded five base-runners) and I didn't come through. It couldn't be better than this."
Asked if it was his biggest hit ever — he has had a few because he has never batted lower than .314 in the majors — Pujols replied, "Definitely."
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PHAT ALBERT
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How Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols has fared in his 12 postseason games against the Astros:
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Remember, Pujols has also never driven in fewer than 117 runs in the majors, and the guys behind him, Reggie Sanders and Larry Walker, have been known to whack the ball around, too.
If Pujols isn't coming through, you begin to assume the Cardinals aren't, either.
"The hitting coach, Hal McRae, told me after (Andy) Pettitte struck me out (in the third) with a great cutter down and in, 'Relax, you've got two more at-bats,' " Pujols said. "Obviously, I had three more at-bats."
Calm in storm
He got his fateful fifth one because the scrappy David Eckstein, the first last chance the Cardinals had in the ninth, also battled his way out of a two-strike vise after Lidge had posted a pair of strikeouts to start the inning.
"It's pretty calming to step in there in that situation," Eckstein insisted. "I don't know why, but it's a feeling that comes over you. (The fans) are so loud, but you just understand it's you versus him — that's all that matters at that point."
Then Jim Edmonds coaxed his way on base with a walk and there came Pujols, past due. Way past.
"With Albert coming to the plate," Eckstein said, "you just felt good about the situation."
Imagine that.
"An unbelievable feeling," Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter said. "As soon as he hit it, you knew it was gone." dale.robertson@chron.com