Astros stun Cards to reach first World Series

ST LOUIS (Reuters) – Roy Oswalt tossed seven brilliant
innings to lead the Astros to a 5-1 Game Six victory over the
St Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, handing Houston the National
League title and a first World Series appearance.

The Astros, who were one strike away from clinching the
pennant at home Monday, rebounded from the crushing loss with a
dominating performance to take the best-of-seven championship
series 4-2 and become the first Texan team to host a World
Series game.

Houston will now meet the Chicago White Sox in Game One of
the Fall Classic at U.S. Cellular Field Saturday.

“It’s indescribable, I’ve waited so long for this to
happen,” said Craig Biggio, who has spent his entire 18-year
career in an Astros uniform.

“A lot of great players have never got a chance to go to
the World Series and I was hoping I wouldn’t be one them.

“I’m not greedy, I’m not selfish I just wanted to get to a
World Series one time.

“We never gave up, we kept battling.

“I know we’ve got five million people in Houston who are
pretty pumped up.”

The victory ended 44 years of frustration and near misses
for the Astros and their fans.

Until Wednesday, the Astros had gone 0-5 in games in which
they had a chance to win the NLCS, including Monday’s contest
when they were leading 4-2 with two-out in the ninth when
Albert Pujols smacked a three-run homer to force Game Six.

For the second consecutive year the Astros returned to
Busch Stadium holding a 3-2 series lead, but this time would
not be denied.

Oswalt, a 20 game winner during the regular season,
sparkled again, allowing just one run on three hits while
striking out six with a walk.

“I love the pressure, I love it when it counts,” said
Oswalt, who was named series MVP.

“We came in here knowing they had to catch us and knew the
game we had to play.”

“No one gave up on us.

“We believed in ourselves, I think halfway through this
season we got it going and nobody looked back.

“The biggest thing tonight was we got the early lead then I
knew I could go right at them.

“I could throw fast balls, the key to me was keeping guys
off base.”

SILENCED CROWD

Backed by Oswalt’s stingy pitching, the Astros drew first
blood in the third inning when Brad Ausmus charged home on Mark
Mulder’s wild pitch.

Biggio then singled in Adam Everett to push the Astros in
front 2-0, silencing the soldout crowd at Busch Stadium.

Jason Lane homered to deep left in the fourth increasing
the Houston lead to 3-0 before the Cardinals finally got on the
scoreboard in the fifth on John Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly.

The Astros answered right back in the top of sixth,
restoring their three run cushion on Everett’s sacrifice to
third while Morgan Ensberg closed out the scoring with an RBI
single in the seventh.

Yadier Molina popped up to right to end the game,
triggering a wild celebration by the Astros and a sad farewell
for Cardinals fans who exited Busch Stadium for the last time.

The ballpark is to be demolished to make room for a new
stadium.

“We got beat because they played better then we did,”
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

“We did a lot of good things this year but not enough good
things to win this series.

“We didn’t have a health problem we had an Astros problem.

“He (Oswalt) worked us over in Game Two to get them even
and he worked us over again today.

“When you’re pitcher is doing that, you’re not going to do
much.”