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Posted by: Bradley McDonald

What a weekend!

The Astros made my Houston trip a fun one by finding some offense to go along with another stellar performance from the pitching staff on Saturday night. The 'Stros pounded out seven doubles and scored four runs in the seventh inning on their way to a 7-3 win over the Braves.

Little did I know that Saturday's game would be a dim memory today thanks to one of the most remarkable games ever played.

On my way home from Houston on Sunday, I checked the score and the 'Stros were down 6-1 in the sixth inning. I'll admit that I didn't have much faith at that point, so I didn't check the score again. When I got home, my girlfriend told me they had lost so I flipped on the TV to catch some football. Well, luckily for me, the channel that came on had the Braves/Astros game playing and at first I thought it was just a highlight show. It turns out that my girlfriend was wrong about the game being over (boy, was she ever) and I had tuned in just in time to catch the ninth inning.

Lance Berkman had just hit a grand slam in the eighth inning to pull the 'Stros to within one run. The ninth inning didn't look promising, though, as Houston was near the bottom of the lineup. And after the first two batters got out, it looked like there would be a Game 5. But Brad Ausmus, who had hit a total of 3 home runs all year, had a different idea. He hit a shot that landed about one inch above the home run line and the outstretched glove of Braves outfielder Andruw Jones to tie the game!

I get a little excited/nervous when the Astros are in a close game (especially if it's the playoffs), so I was up pacing around once the game went into extra innings. Well, after about the fourth extra inning and no runs , I was worn out (and so was the carpet between my couch and the fireplace)!

The Astros had used all of their bullpen pitchers and I was wondering who was going to come in to pitch when Roger Clemens started stretching in the bullpen. The same 43 year old Roger Clemens that had pitched three days earlier. In Major League Baseball, most starters have five days of rest between outings. But Clemens came in on three days rest and pitched marvelously.

Finally, in the bottom of the EIGHTEENTH inning, Astros rookie Chris Burke put a pitch over the left field wall for a walk-off home run! The game lasted a grueling six hours, but to see all the players jumping around like kids after Burke's homerun, you would've never known it!

The game was just flat out unbelievable and people are already debating whether it's the greatest playoff game ever played. I would say so, but I'm a little biased. The amazing thing to me is that there are so many story lines from one game. Berkman's grand slam to give them a chance, Ausmus' solo shot to send it to extra innings, Clemens surprising appearance, and, of course, the rookie's winning shot.

It's a game that's going to put Houston on the baseball map for a long time. Check out Jayson Stark's article here. He's an excellent writer and this is the best article of the game I've seen.

Hopefully, that momentum will carry over into the next series. Next up, in a rematch from last year, is St. Louis. The winner gets a spot in the World Series.

The winner will also give bragging rights to either myself, or Kent Curry, our Executive Editor at 90&9 and a big Cardinals fan. We're trying to make things interesting by putting something more than bragging rights on the game (in a non-gambling, Christian-sort of way, of course). Anyone have any ideas? I'd like the wager to be something embarrassing, so Curry can suffer like I suffered last year!