RetroSimba

Though the Cardinals prevailed in the 2004 National League Championship Series, Carlos Beltran of the Astros produced one of baseball’s all-time best postseason hitting displays.

The Cardinals won the 2004 pennant in seven games, even though Beltran batted .417 with four home runs, eight walks, four stolen bases, five RBI and 12 runs scored.

Beltran also hit four home runs in the five-game 2004 National League Division Series against the Braves. His eight total homers in the two series tied him with the Giants’ Barry Bonds (2002) for most postseason home runs in one year. Beltran did it in nine games. Bonds did it in 17.

Beltran hit two home runs in the Game 5 finale of the Division Series with Atlanta, and homered in each of the first four games of the League Championship Series against St. Louis. The home runs in five consecutive postseason games established a major-league record.

“I don’t know that I’d use the word ‘perfect’ to describe too many people, but I might use that with him (Beltran) right now,” Lance Berkman of the Astros told the Associated Press during the 2004 League Championship Series.

Beltran’s most memorable home run in the series against the Cardinals may have been the one he hit in Game 4 at Houston. In the seventh, with one out, no one on and the score tied, Beltran faced reliever Julian Tavarez, who delivered a slider down and in. According to multiple accounts, the pitch either would have landed in the dirt in front of the plate or struck Beltran on his shoe if he hadn’t swung, but Beltran took a cut and lofted the pitch over the wall in right-center, snapping the 5-5 tie and providing the Astros the margin for a 6-5 victory, tying the series. Boxscore

“I thought the umpire (Mike Winters) would reach back in his pocket for another ball because I thought that one was in the dirt,” Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell told USA Today. “Then he (Beltran) hit it out.”

Tavarez became unglued. When he returned to the dugout after the inning, he punched a wall telephone, breaking two bones in his left hand.

“I ducked,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I don’t think he would have broken it if it was me he hit.”

Later, speaking with the Washington Post, Tavarez still was amazed Beltran homered off that pitch. “What he’s doing is unbelievable,” Tavarez said. ‘I’ve never seen anybody have the kind of postseason he’s having.”

Tavarez, a teammate of Bonds with the 1997 Giants, told the Associated Press, “Barry Bonds is the best hitter in baseball. I don’t think he could have hit that pitch. I can’t believe he (Beltran) hit it.”

Said Beltran: “I just told myself to relax, stay back and trust my hands, and that’s what happened.”

Beltran hit safely in the first six games of the 2004 League Championship Series, but in Game 7 he was held hitless in four at-bats. Beltran was 0-for-2 with a walk against Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan. In the eighth, Beltran grounded out against Tavarez, who pitched despite the broken bones on his glove hand. The Cardinals rallied from two runs behind against Roger Clemens and won, 5-2, to clinch their first pennant in 17 years. Boxscore

Asked why Suppan was effective, Beltran told Knight Ridder Newspapers, “He moves the ball so well, changes speeds. He’s got a few different curveballs _ the slow, the very slow, the super slow and the super-super slow.”