Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 7: Two Games for the Price of One

Game 4, 2005 NLDS: Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros

October 9, 2005, Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

Astros lead 2-1 

The first surprise was that Brad Ausmus was batting here. Two outs in the ninth, Houston trailing 6-5 - it seemed like a perfect time to go pinch hit for the catcher who was only 2-for-15 in his career against this reliever. And right there on the bench, sitting right behind his manager and holding a bat, was Jeff Bagwell. You can find a picture of Bagwell now hanging on the wall in Cooperstown. So why couldn't we find him in the batters' box in a situation where a home run would tie the game? 

The second surprise was that Kyle Farnsworth was still in the game. Atlanta's bullpen was running on fumes, sure, but Farnsworth had pitched the entire 8th inning, a frame that included a grand slam by Lance Berkman that turned a Braves runaway into a nail biter. Surly a fresh reliever was a better option. Or maybe manager Bobby Cox knew Farnsworth's past success against Ausmus and figured he was as good a choice as anybody.

When it came down to it, with all the numbers examined and players considered, both managers chose to trust the guy they had. Houston's Phil Garner ended up being right. Ausmus hit a fly ball that hit the wall right at the corner of the yellow home run line on Minute Maid Park's left field wall and caromed into play. At first the Braves outfielders scrambled after it, hoping they could keep the slow-running catcher to a double. But there was the second-base umpire making the home run signal, and there was Ausmus jogging around the bases, and there was Cox in the dugout, now probably out of relievers he trusted, thinking "now what?"    

If he only knew. Ausmus' home run rescued Houston from defeat and temporarily delayed their travel plans to Atlanta for Game 5. As impossible as it might have seemed entering the bottom of the eighth - when Atlanta held a 6-1 lead thanks in large part to a third-inning grand slam from Adam LaRoche - this game was going into extra innings. And extra, and extra, and extra...

This should have been quick for Houston. Their bullpen had already proven itself in this series, while Atlanta's had been a disaster. But it was the playoffs, and nothing was supposed to be easy in the playoffs. 

Houston could have scored in the bottom of the 10th, when they had two men on with two outs and finally played their Bagwell card. But Bagwell got jammed, and his fly ball to left hung in the air just long enough for Ryan Langerhans to run underneath it.

Atlanta could have scored in the top of the 11th, with two men on with two outs, but Julio Franco grounded out. They also could have scored in the top of the 14th, when they loaded the bases with one out, but Dan Wheeler struck out Brian McCann and got Pete Orr to ground to third. And so they played on.

Wheeler was Houston's last available reliever, so Game 2 starter Roger Clemens eventually wandered out to the bullpen to warm up. And as both teams kept failing to score, Clemens had to come in - as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 15th with a runner on first. Clemens only had to bunt, of course, and he moved the runner over. But the Astros again didn't score, the threat ending on a double play, and so they played on.

Clemens was pitching because the Astros were out of relievers, but they were also out of position players. So as he shut down the Braves, all the way to the 18th inning - the first postseason game to ever enter the 18th inning, two games for the price of one - Clemens' spot in the batting order came up again. And since there was nobody left on the bench to pinch hit for him - and nobody in the bullpen to come in to replace the pinch hitter. Clemens had to bat. And he did what any pitcher would do when batting in the 18th inning of a playoff game - he swung as hard as he could, struck out swinging, and walked back to the bench to hope for a run.

It was finally over.

And the run finally came. Chris Burke hadn't started the game; he came in as a pinch runner for Berkman in the 10th. He had played center, and then left, as Garner moved the Astros around the field to accommodate pinch-hitters and double switches. So when he came to the plate with one out in the 18th, he had played almost an entire game despite entering the game in extra innings. He had already flied out to left once in extra innings. For his second time up, he hit one just a little bit farther. 

Burke's series-ending home run - only the 8th in Major League history at that point - sent the Astros to the NLCS, where they finally got past the Cardinals and into the World Series. And we've seen what happened in that series.

 

Game 4, 2005 National League Division Series Overall Rank: 7 Top 10 Swing: 235 Top play: Brad Ausmus' game-tying home run in the 9th (WPA of 49% for Houston) Loser's largest WE: 98 T8, entire inning after Atlanta takes a 6-1 lead. Average LI: 1.69 Highest leverage moment: 6.88 (T14, 2 outs, bases loaded, game tied 6-6, Pete Orr batting for Atlanta)