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| Morgan Ensberg |
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Houston collects the fifteenth playoff victory in franchise history (Garner has seven of them), and Morgan Ensberg has the second-greatest playoff game, after Beltran's NLDS Game Five last year.
Biggio and Ensberg set the tone early: they each had two hits before any other Astro had one. They got the Astros on the board, then put the Astros back on top after the disconcerting home run from Larry Jones.
It's easier to write about hitting you didn't see than pitching you didn't, but Pettitte despite the home runs must have been something. I was noticing early that he was starting most of the hitters out of the zone, and I'm thinking that wasn't an accident. He had the pitching line of a man with a plan today.
The bullpen looked shaky, but as agonizing as it was to have to watch that, as the Braves crept into just maybe, hypothetical, might have a chance contention in the game, in retrospect, it may not be so bad. After all, the Cardinals, the Red Sox, and now the Braves have given up at least five runs in a game with their pens. We only gave up two, so we must be doing good, right?
And slightly more seriously, getting Lidge up to throw in the pen as Gallo was strugling to finish it may not have been the calamity the announcers were trying to make it. After all, he hadn't thrown since Sunday.
Even in last year's successful postseason, the Astros were unable to come back and win game two in Atlanta. Roy Oswalt started against Mike Hampton in that one. Tomorrow, Roger Clemens--who'd won Game One last year--will try to get the Astros out to the commanding lead.