Game 2 gaffe all but forgotten as Astros gain upper hand

07:15 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

By Kevin B. Blackistone / The Dallas Morning News

HOUSTON – Phil Garner was facing a truly unfair judgment until late Monday night. It was that an absolutely fantastic half-season he's had managing the Astros was in danger of being forgotten, washed away by a bout with brain lock he suffered on a single evening last week.

How unfortunate that would have been. After all, we're talking about a guy who was pulling off a Jack McKeon-type of campaign; you know, the old fellow who bailed out the Marlins last year in midseason and guided them all the way to the World Series title.

When Garner was tapped to take over the Astros, they were floundering with a .500 record. That wasn't what was expected of a team that added all the firepower it did in the off-season.

But with Garner at the helm, the Astros turned into a team that played better than .600 ball and charged back into the thick of the race for the playoffs. In their home Minute Maid Park, they went on a tear the last month or so for which baseball historians are still looking for comparisons.

In fact, Jeff Kent's ninth-inning, three-run homer Monday night, which gave them a 3-0 win over the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLCS, was their 22nd win in their last 23 games at home. More important, it moved them within one win of advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

And for Garner, it saved his season that shouldn't have needed salvaging.

But it took Kent, thrusting his fist into the air as the fireworks started to explode and Minute Maid Park erupted into cheers, to turn Garner's Game 2 managerial mistake into mere historical footnote, just more major league minutiae. In that game that so many questioned, Garner didn't turn to his closer, Brad Lidge, when the contest was very much up for grabs.

The Cardinals made him pay dearly for the oversight and put the Astros in a 2-0 hole in this best-of-7 series. It looked like whatever dreams Houston fans had were dashed.

Garner was lambasted and should have been. But now he should be fitted for a mortarboard.

Suddenly, Garner is beating five-time Manager of the Year Tony LaRussa at the chess game between dugouts, or at least his players are making him look like he's winning the battle of wits and guts. For it was LaRussa's decision Monday, deciding to pitch to Kent, that was costly, not Garner's.

For the third game in a row, Garner on Monday turned to the young Lidge to be his Mariano Rivera. And Lidge delivered like the veteran Rivera, and not just against the mostly toothless part of the Cardinals lineup, either.

Garner called on Lidge despite his young starter Brandon Backe throwing the game of his life. Backe was perfect through the first four innings. He didn't surrender a hit until the sixth and didn't give up another one after that.

When Garner turned to Lidge, Backe had thrown 101 pitches, and only Reggie Sanders had hit one hard and deep. That was to start the eighth.

Garner easily could have stuck with Backe.

"What really concerned me was when I see pitchers – and it doesn't matter if it's young pitchers or veterans – pitching so well, that have a no-hitter going through the middle part of the game, then they give up a hit, how many times have you seen it turn into three, four, five runs real quick?" Garner said. "I was concerned as we got deeper into the game and the crowd kept getting into it more and more."

So he did the smart thing and went with Lidge.

"You don't need to savor beyond the ninth inning," Garner explained. "Brad was good for one more inning tonight. It was fortunate that that's all it took."

Said Backe: "I think it was a great move. I was tired. I did what I was supposed to do, and it was time to end it."

In the top of the ninth, Lidge rewarded his manager by inducing leadoff hitter Tony Womack into a groundout to second. Then he struck out Larry Walker. Then he did the same to baseball's newest Next Great Player, Albert Pujols.

The only person who looked better than Lidge was Garner, because Garner dared to turn to him. Garner looked like nothing short of a Ph.D.

Now he has the chance to look like a genius.

"Who is your Game 6 starter?" Garner was asked afterward.

"Haven't announced it yet," he said.

He hasn't had an easier decision to make this series: Start Pete Munro and save Roger Clemens for a possible Game 7. That's what the Rocket is for.

E-mail kblackistone@dallasnews.com