Astros Take a Cautious Approach

Houston Astro catcher Brad Ausmus is a realist about the St. Louis Cardinals.

“We haven’t nailed the coffin shut on them just yet,” he said.

Not even after the Astros beat the Cardinals, 2-1, Sunday in Minute Maid Park in Game 4 of the National League championship series to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup.

Not after what Ausmus and his teammates had to do to survive and move to within one victory of Houston’s first World Series.

Not after watching a Cardinal team find all sorts of ways to stay alive in a game that evolved from the mundane to the bizarre in the last three innings.

Severely weakened by injuries, their manager ejected, their key hitter ejected in a crucial moment, the Cardinals still came within a couple of feet of a potential game-winning home run, still put the tying run on third twice in the ninth inning and still raced to within half a step of catching the Astros.

And at the center of it all was plate umpire Phil Cuzzi, who was hardly a household name in St. Louis before Sunday, but surely now is being referred to by unsavory names.

St. Louis opened the scoring in the fourth inning. After David Eckstein walked, Jim Edmonds doubled to left field. Eckstein then scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Albert Pujols.

The Astros answered in the bottom of the inning with Jason Lane’s one-out homer to left field against starter Jeff Suppan.

Houston moved ahead in the seventh inning against Jason Marquis, who took the loss.

After pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro walked to open the inning, Craig Biggio bunted and Marquis fielded the ball, but he looked to see where Biggio was before getting a firm grip and the ball squirted free, putting runners at first and second.

With one out, Lance Berkman walked on a pitch that elicited an angry response from Manager Tony LaRussa in his dugout, which resulted in a fiery response from Cuzzi, who banished him.

LaRussa bolted out of the dugout and got in Cuzzi’s face until third base umpire Tim McClelland tried to intercede. McClelland spent the next couple of minutes running interference for Cuzzi until the fuming LaRussa finally departed.

“Anything involving umpires,” said LaRussa, “there’s nothing you should say afterward, next day, next week, next year.”

But Cuzzi, who declined to comment, hadn’t had his final say in the game.

Morgan Ensberg followed Berkman’s at-bat with a sacrifice fly to center to send home what proved to be the winning run.

Then in the Cardinal eighth, with a runner on first and two out, Edmonds stepped out to ask Cuzzi about a called strike and was also ejected on the ensuing discussion.

“I asked him a question about the pitch,” Edmonds said. “I didn’t get a response. I asked him again, not loudly, not to show him up, and he chased me.”

Although Edmonds said he did not use an obscenity, he indicated Cuzzi did.

“I don’t let my kids say that [what Cuzzi allegedly said] in my house,” Edmonds told reporters.

On came John Rodriguez, inheriting a full count from Edmonds, and he drove a pitch up the embankment in center field to within two feet of the 436-foot sign before Willy Taveras caught up with the ball.

With one last chance against closer Brad Lidge in the ninth, the Cardinals put runners at first and third. Pujols was thrown out on a fielder’s choice at the plate. An alert Larry Walker then took third while the Astros were watching Cuzzi dust the plate, assuming, wrongly as it turned out, that time was out.

But John Mabry hit into a game-ending double play, barely nipped at first.

They’ll play Game 5 today, the Cardinals still breathing, the Astros still breathing heavily.