Under siege from teammates, Roger Clemens put his hands over his head and ducked as champagne showered him from all directions Sunday evening.
Astros just kept coming at him, using the same determination and perseverance they had displayed earlier at Minute Maid Park against the Atlanta Braves.
“I can’t believe it,” Clemens told his teammates as they celebrated their berth in the National League Championship Series. “I thought you guys didn’t have any left. I thought we had already used the last bullets.”
Thanks to Clemens’ gritty three innings of relief, the Astros had enough to win the historic Game 4 of the National League Division Series 7-6 on Chris Burke’s walk-off home run in the 18th inning off right-hander Joey Devine.
“I’m just real proud of those guys,” said Clemens, who earned the win in the first postseason relief outing of his career and his first relief appearance of any kind since he was a rookie 21 years ago. “We always talk about playing nine innings. This time, we had to play a few more than nine, double that. What can I say?”
A sellout crowd of 43,413 was treated to the longest postseason game in major-league history as the Astros earned the right to face the NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals in the best-of-seven NLCS, which starts Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
In a microcosm of their season, the Astros fell behind early and seemed all but done as the Braves carried a 6-1 lead into the eighth inning. Lance Berkman cut the deficit to one run with a grand slam off Kyle Farnsworth in the bottom of the eighth.
Still, the Braves nursed a one-run lead as Farnsworth retired the first two batters in the ninth. With the Astros an out away from having to travel back to Atlanta for Game 5, Brad Ausmus tied the score at 6 by ripping a 2-0 fastball just above the yellow line in left-center field for a homer.
That’s when it really got interesting as Astros manager Phil Garner mixed and matched his 25-man roster, shifting several players from one position to another until finally moving starting catcher Ausmus back behind the plate from first base after using Clemens to pinch hit in the 15th.
Even Berkman had to watch from the dugout. He had been replaced by pinch-runner Burke after a two-out double in the 10th.
“I don’t know how explain it,” Garner said after the Astros won the best-of-five series 3-1 over the NL East champions. “It’s been the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like the Sunday afternoon softball game where everybody on your block gets to play.”
After going 42 seasons without winning a postseason series, the Astros have now carried the wild card into the division series and eliminated the Braves in consecutive seasons.
The Astros set a division series record Sunday by using 23 players. The 5 hours and 50 minutes of action also set a postseason record, surpassing the 5:49 the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox needed last year to decide Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.
The 42 combined players marked the most ever used in a division series game, and the 14 total pitchers tied the division series record for most in a game.
The grand slam Adam LaRoche hit off Brandon Backe to give the Braves a 4-0 lead in the third inning was the first allowed by the Astros in the postseason.
“To be honest with you, I think they were just down to the last straw,” said Braves starter Tim Hudson, who settled for the no-decision after holding the Astros to six hits and three runs over seven innings. “They really didn’t have anybody else to get it to. I don’t think they really wanted him to come back on two days’ rest.”
Clemens, 43, got the call after Mike Gallo, Russ Springer, Wandy Rodriguez, Chad Qualls, Brad Lidge and Dan Wheeler combined to throw 10 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Lidge threw two innings with a season-high 45 pitches, and Wheeler followed with three innings and a season-high 55 pitches.
“Maybe this game was the perfect example of our entire season, that battle, that grind,” third baseman Morgan Ensberg said. “Then all of a sudden, you got Rocket going into the bullpen, getting ready, coming back out to sacrifice bunt before going out on the mound. Those are situations that he’s not in. The guy’s a flat-out gamer.”
Longest playoff games
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NO RESULT DATE
18 Houston 7, Atlanta 6-a 10-9-05
16 New York 7, Houston 6-b 10-15-86
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15 New York 4, Atlanta 3-b 10-17-99
15 New York 7, Seattle 5-c 10-4-95
14 Boston 5, New York 4-d 10-18-04
14 Boston 2, Brooklyn 1-e 1916
13 New York 3, San Fran. 2-a 10-7-00
13 Cleveland 5, Boston 4-c 10-3-95
a-NLDS, b-NLCS, c-ALDS, d-ALCS, e-World Series
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