Baseball will break your heart every time

“[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”
― A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time For Paradise: Americans And Their Games

~~~

So, the Astros have a 2-1 lead in games of the Division Series in the American League going into today's game. With just one more win, they can take this series and go on to the League Championship Series.

In the seventh inning of today's game, they opened up a 6-2 lead over the Kansas City Royals. In the eighth inning, the manager, who has made brilliant moves all year, turned it over to his usually reliable bullpen to close it out. Victory seemed assured.

Then, it all fell apart.

The bullpen gave up the lead and the batters were not able to come back in their last six at-bats. Final score: 9-6. Royals win. 

Bart Giamatti is proved right once again. Baseball does break your heart. Especially if you are an Astros fan.

On to Kansas City.

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