By Bill Brown

In the 44th year of the Houston Astros, the fans who made their way home from Game 5 of the NLDS between Atlanta and Houston would argue that they had just witnessed the greatest game in the history of the club. They also saw one of the best games in the history of postseason play.

The 7-6 win in 18 innings was only the second clinching victory in a playoff series in the club’s entire history. It was also the longest game in postseason major league baseball history in both the number of innings played and the length of time it took – five hours and 50 minutes.

But the manner in which the game unfolded, the drama and tension as it played out, the stakes in the game and the intensity left the players and fans drained at the end of the day. And it left the Astros in Houston with a day off to rest their jangled nerves and prepare for the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals. If they had lost, they would have boarded a plane for Atlanta and Game Five would have decided the series the next night.

The night before, the Astros had knocked off the Braves 7-3 to take 2-1 lead in the series. They took the lead in the third on a Mike Lamb homer, added four in the seventh against the beleaguered Braves’ bullpen and got a solid start from Roy Oswalt, who went seven and a third innings and got the win.

The players weren’t at all thrilled about starting the next game Sunday at 12:09 p.m. after a night game Saturday, but network television dictated the early start time. As Astro fans made their way from church or home to Minute Maid Park, they came energized and hoping to celebrate the clincher at home. They had never been able to do that in the club’s history. The only other time they had clinched a playoff series, in 2004, they lost Game Four in Houston and had to beat the Braves in Atlanta to clinch. 

In this game, Brandon Backe started against Tim Hudson. Backe was making his first start of the series, having pitched an inning of relief in a Game Two loss Thursday at Atlanta. Hudson had pitched one of the worst games of his career in Game One, losing to Andy Pettitte 10-5. Hudson had been uncharacteristically wild, walking five and allowing five earned runs. His career record of 106-48 and 3.33 ERA did not include many games like that one.

But it was Backe who allowed five in this game and struggled with his command. He walked two and hit a batter in the third, setting the table for a grand slam by Adam LaRoche.LaRoche’s blast quieted the energetic crowd. Hudson kept them at bay with a strong seven innings. Backe stayed in until the fifth, when Houston skipper Phil Garner made his first call to the bullpen. Little did the unsuspecting crowd of 43,413 realize that Garner would summon a total of eight pitchers in the 18-inning marathon, using his entire relief corps and then moving on to venerable Roger Clemens in the 16th inning. The relievers would combine to work 13 and two-thirds innings, allowing one run. 

Mike Gallo got out of bases loaded trouble in the fifth. Russ Springer worked out of jams in the sixth and seventh. In the seventh, LaRoche was thrown out at the plate on a double by Jeff Francouer into the left field corner. Lance Berkman threw to Adam Everett, whose one-hop relay to catcher Brad Ausmus gunned down the slow LaRoche. Ausmus made a sensational play to field the throw on a tough bounce and tag out LaRoche, who took several short, choppy steps before sliding into the tag. He admitted after the game that he made a baserunning mistake by assuming he would be stopping at third base instead of keeping his eyes on coach Freddie Gonzalez, who was waving him home. After the game, LaRoche capsulized his feelings about hitting a grand slam but losing the game,”That’s about as high and as low as you can get. There’s nothing worse than to have to go home after a loss.” 

Wandy Rodriguez made his first ever playoff appearance in the eighth and his first pitch was blasted by Brian McCann for a home run to right field, giving the Braves a 6-1 advantage. That was to be the last run they scored, with the sturdy Houston bullpen shutting them out for the last ten innings! McCann, who homered off Clemens in Game Two to send the Braves off to a 7-1 win, was born in the same year that Clemens made his major league debut – 1984.Clemens’ debut was as a reliever – the only major league relief appearance of his career until this game.

The Astros chipped away at Hudson in the fifth and scored on pinch hitter Orlando Palmeiro’s sacrifice fly. When they batted in the eighth trailing 6-1, Ausmus drew a leadoff walk. By then most in the huge crowd were thinking ahead to a possible deciding game the next night, expecting Andy Pettitte to pitch in Atlanta. That still gave the Astros a good chance to win the series. Pettitte had pitched superbly in winning Game One. Little did they know at the time that Pettitte had caught a virus from his children and was not even at the ballpark. He had been told earlier in the day to go home and rest. Plans were being made for him to fly on a private jet to Atlanta Sunday night so he could be isolated from his teammates. The Astros were not even sure he would be able to pitch Monday. A rumor circulated in the pressbox later that Pettitte had arrived at Minute Maid Park about the 17th inning dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, but the reason was unknown to the media.

Hudson was pulled from the game by Atlanta skipper Bobby Cox. Cox brought in closer Kyle Farnsworth with two on and no outs. Farnsworth had moved into the closer’s role when Chris Reitsma failed. He had converted all ten save opportunities as a Brave after arriving in a July trade with Detroit. Declining the use of a setup man, Cox had solid reasons. The night before, Reitsma did not retire a batter, allowing a single and double. John Foster gave up an RBI single to the only man he faced. Joey Devine allowed two run-producing hits and a walk to the three batters he faced. Only Jim Brower was effective of the four relievers, working two hitless innings. So the hard-throwing Farnsworth took over, getting one out immediately on Craig Biggio’s force play. Luke Scott drew a pinch walk, batting for Willy Taveras, to load the bases. On a 2-1 pitch, Berkman ripped a line drive to the second row of the box seats in left field. The crowd erupted as the Astros’ first extra base hit of the game reached fan Shaun Dean’s glove. Dean had never sat in the Landry’s Crawford Boxes before. He had a souvenir of the biggest homer of Berkman’s career. He also had caught the second grand slam ball of the game, a postseason record. Berkman had one RBI in the first three games. Dean wasn’t finished collecting souvenirs.

Farnsworth stayed in the game despite allowing the slam and got two more outs, keeping the Braves in the lead 6-5 after eight. Chad Qualls followed a leadoff walk in the ninth with a double play ball and the Astros prepared to bat in the last of the ninth. Farnsworth retired Jason Lane on a grounder and got Jose Vizcaino looking at strike three. Ausmus was the only obstacle remaining between the Braves and Game Five.

Some in the pressbox thought Garner should pinch hit for Ausmus. He could have used Jeff Bagwell in that spot. Although Bagwell is the club’s alltime home run leader and had done well as a pinch hitter, he had not provided the longball in 2005 as a pinch hitter. Ausmus had had solid at bats each time up, lining a ball off the pitcher’s glove for an out in the third, singling up the middle in the fifth and drawing a walk in the eighth. Garner stayed with Ausmus, who hit three home runs during the regular season. Ausmus ripped a fastball from Farnsworth perhaps an inch above the left center field wall, 404 feet away. The fans exploded as the game was tied. The Astros had overcome a 6-1 deficit and had all the momentum and the home field advantage. It was to be only the second time in baseball history that a team overcame a five-run deficit to win a postseason game.

Houston’s 53-28 home record was tied with Atlanta’s for the best in the National League during the regular season. The Braves could have buckled quickly after that tying run with the decibel level high and the Astros carrying all the momentum and the home field advantage. The roof was closed despite perfect temperatures and sunny skies because the home team’s players wanted it closed to give them more of an advantage. They were 36-17 with the roof closed and 15-11 with it open. The Braves admitted it was hard to communicate with the noise.

Yet, from this point the Atlanta bullpen got stubborn. And the Astros started running short of players. Garner said,”I don’t plan on an 18-inning game. I play to win in nine.”

With Reitsma in the game in the 10th, Luke Scott just missed a game-winning homer by inches near the left field foul pole. Berkman doubled with two outs. Garner sent in Chris Burke as a pinch runner, seizing this opportunity to win the game and removing his best hitter in the process. Cox ordered Morgan Ensberg walked intentionally. Bagwell pinch hit for Qualls and hit a fly ball to left field to end the threat. The relievers for both clubs had seized control of the game at this point. The Astros did not get a hit for the next seven innings. The Braves had a chance in the 14th against Dan Wheeler with the bases loaded and one out. Wheeler, who worked three innings, fanned McCann and retired pinch hitter Pete Orr.

John Thomson, who might have started Game Five, followed Reitsma and retired six in a row in the 12th and 13th. Jim Brower, who didn’t allow a hit in three playoff appearances, matched Wheeler’s three scoreless innings and kept the game tied through 16. As Wheeler was pitching the 15th, a familiar figure warmed up in the Houston bullpen. He wore #22, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner. The fans greeted him with a thunderous ovation when he jogged in from the bullpen before the bottom of the 15th. Much earlier in the day, he had called his son Koby in the Clemens suite at the ballpark and asked Koby to come to the indoor batting cage and warm him up. Clemens needed to throw between starts. Koby had signed with the Astros after being drafted in June and had played third base at two Class A stops. There was speculation he might become a catcher in the future.

About the 13th inning, Garner looked at Clemens and told him to get his game jersey and spikes on. Clemens had offered to pitch in relief for the Astros before when the bullpen was strapped. This time he could tell Garner was not just joking around. He actually entered the game as a pinch hitter for Wheeler and executed a sacrifice bunt in the 15th. In his three innings, Clemens allowed only a double to pinch hitter Brian Jordan in the 17th. He pitched around an error in the 18th. In the 17th, first baseman Raul Chavez made a nice play on a hard-hit one hop grounder, blocking it with his chest and tossing to Clemens covering. Chavez had entered in the 13th as a pinch hitter for Brad Lidge and stayed in to catch with Ausmus moving to first base. When Clemens entered the game, Ausmus and Chavez switched positions.

In the 17th, Cox called on Joey Devine to pitch. The hard-throwing righthander was drafted by the Braves just a few months ago in June in the first round from North Carolina State. He got in a few games in late September. Now he was the sixth Braves’ pitcher of the game. While the Astros had worked their way through the entire bullpen, the Braves had three lefties still available.

The Astros had to leave Clemens in the game to lead off the home 18th. With only starting pitchers Pettitte and Oswalt left unused, they were leaving the major league ERA leader in the game. He took a mighty swing at the first pitch and wound up striking out. Just as well, the fans were thinking. This way he avoided being a baserunner. And who knows how long the game would last. Afterwards, Tim Hudson would say,”To be honest with you, I think they were just down to the last straw. Regardless who you are, I don’t care what kind of warrior you are, what kind of Hall of Famer you are, you’re not going to pitch on two days’ rest unless they desperately need you to. But he was able to come in, step up, get the job done and make some good pitches.”

With one out, Chris Burke worked the count to 2-0. The University of Tennessee star, drafted in the first round in 2001, had made his way through the organization from shortstop to second base to outfield. Because of the presence of Craig Biggio, he was now an outfielder who started against lefties. He had one at bat the first three games – a pinch double in Game Two. Entering as a pinch runner for Berkman in the 10th, he flied out in the 13th and walked in the 15th. He swung at the 2-0 fastball from Devine and smacked it to the second row of the Crawford Boxes. The same fan who caught Berkman’s slam – Shaun Dean – also grabbed Burke’s game winner as the fans came unglued with emotion. Dean later gave both balls back to the team for posterity – an almost unheard-of gesture. Burke hit the 553rd pitch into the left field seats. Ausmus, who had averaged one home run per 150 plate appearances in 2005, struck a blow for the ages in club history. Burke had the sixth home run in major league history to end a playoff series. His bat was on its way to Cooperstown.

Clemens had proved his greatness again, two years after he could have retired to await a Hall of Fame invitation.

John Smoltz, who defeated Clemens with a powerful Game Two performance, said,”It gets old. We’re tired of the classics that we’re losing. This reminds me of Minnesota (a 1-0 loss in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series), the greatest game ever played but we lost. This is probably the greatest Division Series game ever played, but we lost.” The team against which all others are measured was going home after winning a 14th consecutive division title.

In Astros’ history, the previous classic playoff game was the 16-inning 1986 game between the Astros and the New York Mets, with the Mets winning 7-6. New York scored 3 in the top of the 16th with Houston coming up with two in the bottom. Jesse Orosco struck out Kevin Bass with two on to end it. Billy Hatcher’s home run off the left field foul screen tied the game in the 14th. Garner, first base coach Jose Cruz and Astros’ broadcaster Alan Ashby played on that Houston team in a game which lasted 4:42. But all said the 2005 game surpassed the 1986 thriller. Most fans who witnessed both games would agree. The 2005 win went a long way toward blurring the vivid memories of playoff losses in the past. Oh – and who would have pitched after Clemens if the game had not been decided? Right fielder Jason Lane, a pitcher in college at USC.