Astros Can’t Find Relief

For the Houston Astros, seeking victory on a national stage against their fiercest rival, there were simply too many hanging Chads.

Relievers Chad Qualls and Chad Harville left too many pitches in locations where the St. Louis Cardinals could spray them all over Busch Stadium on Wednesday night during a 10-7 victory in Game 1 of the National League championship series.

Qualls, cursed in Houston for giving up a score-tying three-run home run in Game 4 of the NL division series, reached a new postseason low in his one inning of work against the Cardinals, surrendering five runs, five hits and a walk.

Scott Rolen broke out of his postseason funk with a run-scoring single in the fifth inning to tie the score, 4-4, and St. Louis sent 10 batters to the plate during a six-run sixth against Qualls and Harville, rendering a boisterous sellout crowd of 52,323 practically hoarse from all the cheering.

The Cardinals did not particularly hammer Qualls, though they amassed plenty of what St. Louis slugger Larry Walker described as “cheap hits” during their big inning. Among their hits were two infield singles and another single that barely squirted into center field, but the effect was the same.

“That’s how you get a big game going,” said Jim Edmonds, who delivered the crushing blow with a three-run double against Harville that drove in Rolen from first base, his hand touching the plate just before the tag from catcher Brad Ausmus.

“You’re not really looking for it, but it happens.”

The Cardinals ended a streak of five consecutive losses at home in NLCS play dating to 1996 and won a crucial game in the best-of-seven series, if recent history is any indication. The winner of Game 1 of the NLCS has advanced to the World Series in each of the last 11 years.

“Game 1 is a big game unless you lose it, and then you say it’s a not-so-big game,” Rolen said. “Since we won, I’ll say it’s a big game. Hopefully, we can win [tonight] so I can say Game 2 is a big game.”

St. Louis’ big inning neutralized two-run homers by Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent against starter Woody Williams that had given the Astros two-run leads in the first and fourth innings. Houston scored all its runs on four homers.

And yet, the Cardinals still had to bring in closer Jason Isringhausen to finish the game after Lance Berkman hit a two-run homer in the eighth and the Astros made things interesting in the ninth on pinch-hitter Mike Lamb’s solo homer and Craig Biggio’s double, both with two out.

Isringhausen retired Beltran on his only pitch, getting the power hitter to ground out to first baseman Albert Pujols.

“I think after one pitch, I’ll be all right,” Isringhausen said when asked whether he would have preferred to have the night off.

Williams keyed the Cardinals’ two-run rally in the fifth with a one-out double over right fielder Berkman’s head. Walker, who finished a homer shy of becoming the first player in postseason history to hit for the cycle, hit a two-out double down the left-field line to drive in Williams, making it 4-3.

Houston starter Brandon Backe then essentially pitched around Pujols, whose two-run homer in the first into the St. Louis bullpen had tied the score, 2-2, prompting Manager Phil Garner to summon Qualls. But the right-hander gave up Rolen’s run-scoring single to left that ended his 0-for-14 postseason skid.

“I thought I was zero for two,” Rolen said, referring to the outs he made in the first and fourth innings. “I didn’t know I had to go back into the last series.”

Edgar Renteria and Reggie Sanders led off the sixth with consecutive singles up the middle, Renteria’s reaching center field and Sanders’ ricocheting off the glove of second baseman Kent. After the runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt, pinch-hitter Roger Cedeno drove in Renteria with a slow roller up the first base line.

Tony Womack gave the Cardinals a 6-4 lead with a single that split the middle infielders, and Walker singled to shortstop Jose Vizcaino deep in the hole, bringing home Womack when Vizcaino’s throw bounced past first baseman Jeff Bagwell for an error.

“Qualls did a pretty good job of keeping the ball in the infield,” Garner said, “but we couldn’t get that final out.”

After Qualls walked Pujols, Harville walked Rolen to load the bases for Edmonds, whose double cleared them to make it 10-4. Seven of the Cardinals’ runs came with two out, continuing a trend that helped them make quick work of the Dodgers in the division series.

“We always fight to the last out,” Sanders said. “Two-out hits have always been big for us.”