I had given up. I had just cussed the tin can of a ballpark the Astros play in. I had even turned the Cardinals game off to watch the Rams get destroyed by the Colts on Monday Night Football. I just couldn't watch Houston celebrate. So with two outs in the 9th, I turned it off.

After a couple of minutes, Emily told me to turn it back just to see if it was over yet. Of course, it was over. Brad Lidge was pitching. That's as over as it gets.

The first thing I saw was the little diamond graphic that Fox uses, and it told me that a runner was on second base. And Edmonds was up. Wait...the tying run is batting? My heart started beating a little faster, but I tried to temper my excitement with the thought that it could all end at any time with a strike out, or even worse, a slow roller to an infielder. But then Edmonds actually found a patient bone in his body and took ball 4.

This is what you live for. Your best hitter coming up with two out in the ninth of a playoff game as the go ahead run. If they are going to beat you, at least they have to beat the best you've got. The anger and bitterness that I had just had 5 minutes earlier had been replaced with a sense of calm.

And then 3 pitches later, that sense of calm was stomped into oblivion by me jumping up and down in my own living room like a little kid after Albert CRUSHED one over their wussy little left field fence. I wanted to yell, but waking the girls is out of the question, so the best I could do was to point at the television and chastise the entire city of Houston for thinking that they had the game won.

I never thought I would see anything come close to being as exciting as Edmonds' home run in Game 6 of last year's NLCS, but I think this might have been it. And now we go back to Busch for 2 more (and there WILL be 2 more). Anybody have an extra ticket for Wednesday?

From the Peanut Gallery...

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