Astros Make a B-Line for Victory to Tie Series

The ball soared toward its eventual resting place in the Houston Astro bullpen, and suddenly all those white towels being waved inside Minute Maid Park might as well have been Homer Hankies.

Carlos Beltran, who had reached down to hit a pitch around his ankles toward the wall in right-center field, ran as hard as he could toward first base, unsure of his drive’s final destination.

“As soon as I saw the guys jumping up in the bullpen,” Beltran said, “I knew it was gone.”

And just like that, with one swing of his charmed bat in the seventh inning Sunday afternoon, Beltran had lifted the Astros to a 6-5 comeback victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the National League championship series while securing his place in postseason lore.

Beltran’s tiebreaking solo homer off Cardinal reliever Julian Tavarez cemented his name alongside October greats such as Reggie Jackson, Kirby Puckett and Barry Bonds. More important, it helped the Astros tie the best-of-seven series at two games apiece heading into Game 5 today and guaranteed a return to St. Louis for Game 6.

“I wish I could do it every day,” said Beltran, who practically has, hitting a homer in a playoff-record five consecutive games.

The slugging center fielder, who has four homers in the NL championship series, tied Bonds for the record of eight homers in a single postseason. A feat that took Bonds 17 games to accomplish in 2002, Beltran achieved in nine.

“Superman, you mean?” Houston left fielder Craig Biggio said of Beltran, a midseason addition to Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman in the Astros’ “Killer Bs” lineup. “You can’t say enough about what he’s been able to do on this big of a stage.”

Brad Lidge, milling about in the Astro bullpen when Beltran’s blast landed like a gift from the heavens, said he “wanted to jump up, but I had to gain my composure because I knew I was heading into the ballgame.”

Lidge retired the side on seven pitches in the eighth, but the Cardinals, who had squandered leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-3, refused to go quietly in the ninth.

Tony Womack led off the inning with a drive that first baseman Bagwell snared with a sprawling dive to his right for the first out. Larry Walker then walked on four pitches, bringing up Albert Pujols, whose two-run homer in the first had highlighted a three-run Cardinal outburst.

Pujols didn’t put much of a swing on a low pitch but still almost lofted it out of the park before Biggio cradled it in his glove on the warning track for the second out. Then, with the crowd of 42,760 standing in anticipation, Lidge struck out Scott Rolen on a 96-mph fastball to record his second two-inning save in two days.

“We really believe in Brad,” said Beltran, impressed that his teammate could come back so strong after throwing 42 pitches the day before. “He’s unbelievable.”

Said Berkman: “I told him as he was running out to the mound, ‘Just keep throwing till your arm falls off.’ ”

Even though they had received two singular performances, the Astros’ refrain after completing a comeback from a two-games-to-none series deficit was that their accomplishments were realized as a team. After all, they received contributions Sunday from practically their entire roster.

Bagwell drove in a run with a double in the first and singled as part of the Astros’ two-run rally in the third. Jose Vizcaino doubled and scored the tying run in the sixth on Raul Chavez’s bloop single to right-center. Reliever Dan Wheeler pitched his fifth scoreless inning of the series and got the victory.

And then there was Berkman. The right fielder drove in two third-inning runs on a double that one-hopped the wall in center. In the sixth, he drew Houston within one run on a leadoff homer, his third homer of the series and fourth of the postseason.

“It’s a team effort,” Berkman said. “It’s nine guys. It’s not one or two, although sometimes with Carlos, it might seem that way.”

Beltran gave Tavarez, the Cardinal reliever who before the series had referred to the Astros as a “good” team and the Cardinals as a “great” one, something to think about after golfing his 81-mph slider for the winning home run.

“After that,” Beltran said of Tavarez, “he looked like he was lost on the mound.”

Tavarez threw four consecutive balls to Bagwell, the next batter, and the fourth one might have conked Bagwell on the head had he not crouched in self-defense.

While Tavarez shrugged, apparently indifferent to the fact that he had stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble in the home of the “Killer Bs,” Bagwell glared and home plate umpire Mike Winters issued warnings to Tavarez and both dugouts.

Tavarez wild-pitched Bagwell to second and intentionally walked Berkman, then appeared on the verge of a collapse when he hit Jeff Kent on the left leg with an 0-and-2 pitch to load the bases.

Morgan Ensberg helped Tavarez get out of the mess by grounding into an inning-ending double play, but Tavarez didn’t help himself with an ensuing dugout tantrum that was replayed on the stadium scoreboard.

“You just can’t show that type of emotion,” Cardinal reliever Ray King said afterward, chastising his teammate. “You have to come in, stay low-key and let us do our job.”

A large part of that job in the remaining games will be containing Beltran, who is batting .538 in the series with five runs batted in and, among his four homers, one particularly memorable blast.

“I got to tell you,” Houston Manager Phil Garner said, “this kid is some kind of locked in.”

Said Beltran: “It’s hard to describe the way I feel right now. It’s like a dream come true.”