It’s a miracle

(Tom Gannam/AP)

A miracle that we won, yes, but perhaps even more of a miracle that I still care.

I didn’t get to watch the game from the beginning, but after dinner, picking up the basement, getting the kids bathed, making tomorrow’s lunches, making the night’s snack, reading the bedtime stories, getting the kids to bed, walking the dog and getting myself showered, I was ready to watch some ball… in the bottom of the seventh inning.

I figured I had the perfect plan to break the schneid: Schlafly Oatmeal Stouts in a Cardinals pint glass. All kinds of St. Louis mojo.

The bottom of the seventh had some drama, with Scott Spiezio’s walk and eventual stolen base. And I’ll be damned if Al Hrabosky didn’t call Ronnie Belliard’s strikeout to end the inning. With the count full and Yadier Molina on deck, Hrabosky postulated that Padres pitcher would throw a change or some sort of offspeed pitch. Young could afford to risk a walk with the completely non-dangerous Molina on deck. Sure enough, Young pulled the string and Belliard whiffed.

Not that I wasn’t quietly but intensely cheering (wife and kids all sawing logs at this point) for something good to happen. Once Tha Gangsta of Glove whiffed, I muttered “Damn!” under my breath, then realized that I was actually investing myself in the outcome of the game. I’m sure glad I still care.

But that top of the eighth nearly killed all the positive energy. Seeing a run score on a wild pitch with two hard-fought outs was almost too much, but Tyler Johnson’s heads-up play to tag a sneaking Adrian Gonzalez limited the damage.

On the commercial break, I refilled my pint glass and the team’s mojo at the same time. It was a lucky confluence of events, but eventually Albert Pujols got to the plate, and well, he went Albert Pujols on Cla Meredith’s second pitch. My eyes were fixed intently on the television, but I swear I did not see the ball hit the bat. That’s how hard he hit the ball.

And how about Adam Wainwright? Dude’s Uncle Charlie was on to the fullest, although he admitted in the postgame interviews that he got away with a couple of hammers up in the zone. And to be fair, the plate umpire gave him the high strike more than once. But he got the job done, with an air of confidence that he belonged there in the tightest of tight spots in the ninth.

Finally, that magic number graphic at the official site can be changed.