WHAT PRESSURE?
Hitting with two strikes is white-knuckle time for most batters. Not David Eckstein.

The Cardinals shortstop was second in the NL batting with two strikes, hitting .279 with six of his eight homers and 37 of his 61 RBIs. But his biggest two-strike at-bat was Monday, when he hit a 1-2 slider from Houston’s Brad Lidge for a single with two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the NLCS, setting the stage for Pujols’ dramatic three-run homer.

“I’ll take my chances, win or lose,” Eckstein said. “It’s a calming feeling to be up at the plate at that time.”

His luck wasn’t so good Wednesday. Eckstein went to two strikes twice. He struck out in the fifth against Oswalt and grounded out to second in the eighth.

Eckstein said he feels he has a responsibility to work the opposing pitcher. When he gets strike two, all he has to do is hit.

“When I have two strikes, I feel free,” Eckstein said. “My job is to make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches, and when I swing at a bad pitch early in the count that bugs. Once I get to two strikes and I swing at a bad pitch, I don’t mind it at all.”

Eckstein’s father, Whitey, received a kidney transplant in August. Three siblings have also.

“What they’ve gone through, it puts a lot of things in perspective and that perspective will help you handle the situations in that you know win or lose, life is still going to go on,” Eckstein said.

RISP
Finally, the Astros found success hitting with men in scoring position.

Houston entered Game 6 hitting .103 (4-for-39) with men on second and/or third. On Wednesday, the Astros were 2-for-6 with two RBI singles, a sacrifice bunt and a successful squeeze bunt.

Craig Biggio’s third-inning single and Morgan Ensberg’s seventh-inning hit drove home one run each. Adam Everett laid down a perfect squeeze bunt in the sixth.

The Cardinals were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, the lone success pinch-hitter John Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly to drive home Mark Grudzielanek in the fifth. For the series, St. Louis hit .162 (6-for-37) in scoring situations.

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