[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

The worst thing that could have happened by walking Pujols, who has not at all been in a slump recently, was a grand slam homer, which would have yielded the same final result-- an Astros loss. On paper, there was no reason at all to give Pujols a pitch to hit. A stupid decision by all who were involved. As stupid as some of the ABs against Ortiz this past year and last year.

You nailed it! very dumb move on Astros part. Yet they won in the end

[GraniteStateConservative]

I was thinking about it and it was even stupider, because if you walk Ortiz in that spot, as some pitchers have been faced with, you have Manny hitting with RISP. There was no Manny to hit behind Pujols. I've heard people say you can't walk Pujols because it moves 2 men into scoring position. When you have a 2-run lead and need only 1 out, there are a million ways to get out of that inning safely-- pop outs, ground outs, GIDP, etc. All the runners are in motion. I bet they could have even picked someone off, maybe Edmonds at 2B thinking of going to 3B or scoring from 2B, if they were clever about it. You have the best NL closer facing Sanders in that spot. You have to go with that matchup. Couldn't be set up better for the Stros.