What a great result of the ALCS with Red Sox making history! My hats off to Beantown. Now though its down to the Game 7 that means something to me. Astros and Cardinals have been nip and tuck for years and it has been no different in this series. There have been no 19-8 or 10-3 scores only two teams that have battled their guts off and now we will have a Game 7 that the whole nation can see since many have missed the first 6 games of this series due to the ALCS.
All the advantages on paper lie with the Astros. Roger Clemens vs Jeff Suppan. Are you kidding me? HOF vs the Journeyman! Clemens has never lost to St. Louis though Cards have won 2 games he pitched. Now if Clemens can't get it done, how about bringing in the NL's only 20 game winner Roy Oswalt. And if that isn't enough, how about the Astros 3rd closer ly who is the hottest closer in baseball in Brad Lidge! Lidge has only held the Cardinals to just 1 hit in the entire series in 8 innings. Throw in the fact that Beltran and Berkman are only hitting about .500 combined and no Cardinal pitcher has gotten either out consistently spells game set match. And for the cherry how about Bagwell, Kent, and now Lamb to add injury to insult. Today was only prelude to a huge uphill battle for Cardinals and their cast of misfit pitchers.
Take the ASsss... not so fast!
The one team who has did it against all odds this season is the Cardinals. First they were even considered a threat in their own division. Mid May they sat in 5th place. But they rose from the dead to runaway with a division that most experts figured they would have to play perfect ball just to be in the running. This team has been coming back all year long, written off time and time again, and simply keeps doing against the odds.
Jim Edmonds not only won the game 6 for the Cards today but gave back the confidence the Cards needed! The Cards were expected to win Game 6 with Munro pitching but gave it away and looked like they were done with Lidge in the game but with this home run by Edmonds, they regained all that was lost in losing 3 games in Houston.
Going into today's game, there have been 10 series in post season history where the home team came home for game 6 down 3 games to 2. Seven times the road team won to move on to WS. The other 3 times where the home team won game 6 they all went on to win game 7. In this series, the home team has won all 6 games. Only 3 times in a best of 7 has the home team won every game in the series. One of these 3 series was in the 1987 NLCS where the Cardinals beat the Giants which happens to be the last time the Cards went to the WS.
Houston has played in 8 elimination games in postseason history and are 1-7 in these games.
With all of this said, there is only one reason and one alone that will determine this game..... St. Louis Cardinal Fans. We are the best in baseball (sorry Beantown). They simply will not let this team die. They could be playing the 27 Yankees tomorrow or any HOF pitcher of your choice and they will not win tomorrow. You can and probably will call this a biased opinion but like I said before the season, during the All Star break, and during the playoffs, this team is going to the WS. I don't know how they will overcome but another hero like Edmonds will step up as like the Red Sox this is a team not a group of individuals. Take the Cardinals -110. It won't be pretty. It may take half the night but when the smoke clears, this team will find away. BOL and Go Cardinals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the advantages on paper lie with the Astros. Roger Clemens vs Jeff Suppan. Are you kidding me? HOF vs the Journeyman! Clemens has never lost to St. Louis though Cards have won 2 games he pitched. Now if Clemens can't get it done, how about bringing in the NL's only 20 game winner Roy Oswalt. And if that isn't enough, how about the Astros 3rd closer ly who is the hottest closer in baseball in Brad Lidge! Lidge has only held the Cardinals to just 1 hit in the entire series in 8 innings. Throw in the fact that Beltran and Berkman are only hitting about .500 combined and no Cardinal pitcher has gotten either out consistently spells game set match. And for the cherry how about Bagwell, Kent, and now Lamb to add injury to insult. Today was only prelude to a huge uphill battle for Cardinals and their cast of misfit pitchers.
Take the ASsss... not so fast!
The one team who has did it against all odds this season is the Cardinals. First they were even considered a threat in their own division. Mid May they sat in 5th place. But they rose from the dead to runaway with a division that most experts figured they would have to play perfect ball just to be in the running. This team has been coming back all year long, written off time and time again, and simply keeps doing against the odds.
Jim Edmonds not only won the game 6 for the Cards today but gave back the confidence the Cards needed! The Cards were expected to win Game 6 with Munro pitching but gave it away and looked like they were done with Lidge in the game but with this home run by Edmonds, they regained all that was lost in losing 3 games in Houston.
Going into today's game, there have been 10 series in post season history where the home team came home for game 6 down 3 games to 2. Seven times the road team won to move on to WS. The other 3 times where the home team won game 6 they all went on to win game 7. In this series, the home team has won all 6 games. Only 3 times in a best of 7 has the home team won every game in the series. One of these 3 series was in the 1987 NLCS where the Cardinals beat the Giants which happens to be the last time the Cards went to the WS.
Houston has played in 8 elimination games in postseason history and are 1-7 in these games.
With all of this said, there is only one reason and one alone that will determine this game..... St. Louis Cardinal Fans. We are the best in baseball (sorry Beantown). They simply will not let this team die. They could be playing the 27 Yankees tomorrow or any HOF pitcher of your choice and they will not win tomorrow. You can and probably will call this a biased opinion but like I said before the season, during the All Star break, and during the playoffs, this team is going to the WS. I don't know how they will overcome but another hero like Edmonds will step up as like the Red Sox this is a team not a group of individuals. Take the Cardinals -110. It won't be pretty. It may take half the night but when the smoke clears, this team will find away. BOL and Go Cardinals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
