A nine-hour drive turns out to be worth it

Above: Busch Stadium with the tarp on the field during a 3 hour 28 minute rain delay.

Rick and Tammie Carpenter left Sugar Land TX around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. They had taken off from work and had a nine-hour drive to St. Louis ahead of them. They wanted to see their son Matt play in the National League Championship Series. If the Cardinals could beat San Francisco in the best four out of seven NLCS, they would advance to the World Series.

Matt, a 13th-round draft pick (out of Texas Christian University) in the 2009 draft, was a bench player for the Cardinals. Even though he didn't rate to play, they looked forward to rooting for the Cardinals and visiting Matt after the game.

The second batter for the Cardinals was Carlos Beltran. While running out a ground ball, he injured his knee and had to come out of the game. Matt took his place in right field! I can only imagine how proud and excited Rick and Tammie were.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Cardinals were losing 1-0 when Matt came to bat with a runner on base. He quickly fell behind in the count to two strikes and no balls. Then he took a couple of pitches as Matt Cain tried to get him to chase pitches out of the strike zone. Cain was jamming Matt inside. With the count two balls and two strikes, Cain came to the stretch and began his delivery. Matt quickly took two short steps back in the batters box. When a slider came inside, he was ready for it. His towering drive cleared the Cardinal bullpen in right field for a home run!

The Cardinals won 3-1 and Matt's homer was the difference. You can read more about him here and here.

Above: Kyle Lohse didn't have his best stuff, but he was able to work out of jams.

Above: Buster Posey is one of the best players in baseball.

Above: Super-fan MOJO enjoys being in Busch Stadium.

Photos taken with my Canon 40D.