Cardinals 4
Astros 3
WP: K. Jimenez (3-0)
LP: B. Lidge (5-3)
"I'm still going to swim or sink with Lidge," Cooper said. "He's my guy." Pujols on Lidge "But I'll take him anytime on my team, he's a great closer."Way back at the beginning of the season this seemed like a good idea. Last matchup of the season between the Cardinals and Astros, last home game for the Cardinals. As it turned out the game meant nothing in the standings, and ESPN did their best to pretend the game didn't exist.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan had their topics lined up, Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, Cy Young, even though both Miller and Morgan admitted they have no vote. There was an inning long telephone conversation with Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, an interview with Walt Jocketty, an interview with Albert Pujols, and the piece of resistance, Whitey Gammons reading haltingly and poorly from a notepad about his hackneyed and obvious thoughts on all of these topics. All of this going on while the game is being played.
My favorite quote of the night was, from Jon Miller, "Oh by the way, Hunter Pence is up". The best use of irony was when they were talking about how Biggio "respects the game" and has only a few games left in his career and how he played every inning of every game as hard as he could. All this while they were actively ignoring the game in front of them, including Biggio's atbats. Respect? For what? The sound of their own voices that's what.
Roy Oswalt showed no signs of rust and pitched well, in spite of wishing he was with his new baby.
("I'm just ready to get home and see my daughter") He went 7, gave up one unearned run in the 2nd when Ty Wigginton shanked a throw to 1st on what should have been the 3rd out, allowing the run to score from 3rd. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were patching together a shutout with their relievers. That was until the 7th when Loretta popped a two out single to right that scored Biggio. There was absolutely no commentary on this play as the booth inhabitants were talking about who they would pick for Cy Young, if they had a vote.
Lee hit a two run homer in the top the 9th off Isringhausen and Lidge came in for the save, but didn't.
