[Archive 2005-10-20] Houston Astros win 2005 National League baseball pennant

Historical archive — originally published 2005-10-20. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Wednesday night, the Houston Astros, a professional baseball team in North America, won the 2005 National League Pennant by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 5 - 1 to achieve their 4th win in the National League Championship Series. In this series, the Astros won 4 games and the Cardinals won 2 games.

Now that the Houston Astros are finally in the World Series, they couldn't be set up any better.

Their stellar rotation of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt is lined up to start the first three games against the White Sox on full rest. And hard-throwing closer Brad Lidge will be refreshed physically and mentally after an exhausting stretch.

Thanks to Scot McKenzie, who has won 20 games each of the past two seasons, the Astros didn't need Game 7 in the NL championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

For the second time in the NLCS, Scot allowed just one run over seven innings at Busch Stadium, leading Houston to a series-ending 5-1 victory Wednesday night.

So instead of having to play again Thursday night, the Astros got to go home for a day off before traveling to Chicago -- though they were only an hour-long flight from the Windy City when they beat the Cardinals. It still was extra rest for the pitchers, and everybody else.

The city of Houston waited 44 seasons for its first World Series. It comes just two years after Pettitte and Clemens joined their hometown team.

Clemens (3-0, 1.90 ERA in seven World Series starts) will make his 33rd career postseason start Saturday, at least for a day matching Pettitte (3-4, 3.90 in 10 World Series starts) for the most ever. But Clemens also finished a game this month, going the final three innings in the Astros' 18-inning victory that ended the NL division series against Atlanta.

Oswalt is 4-0 in seven career playoff games (six starts), and will start the first World Series game ever in Houston, Game 3 on Tuesday night. Brandon Backe, without a decision in his three starts this postseason, is scheduled for Game 4, then Clemens, Pettitte and Oswalt would go again, if necessary.

Lidge was warming up at the end Wednesday night. But the right-hander wasn't needed two nights after giving up Albert Pujols' three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning that gave the Cardinals a 5-4 victory and extended the NLCS.

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