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Astros stun Cards to reach first World Series

Posted on: Thursday, 20 October 2005, 00:22 CDT

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."

Source: REUTERS

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