Houston ? The Houston Astros were one strike away from their first World Series with the home crowd worked into a frenzy and hard-throwing Brad Lidge – who else? – in control.

Turn out the lights and get the party started, right?

Not so fast.

It’s back St. Louis instead after the Cardinals pulled out a 5-4 victory against Lidge in Game 5 of the NL championship series Monday night.

David Eckstein grounded a two-strike, two-out single through the left side of the infield, and Jim Edmonds drew a five-pitch walk. Still, the Astros had a 4-2 lead when manager Phil Garner made a trip to the mound to talk to his closer.

Two pitches later, Albert Pujols hit a towering three-run homer, and the Cardinals forced the series back to Busch Stadium for Game 6 on Wednesday.

“Obviously, I threw him a pitch I wish I could have back. I threw a slider, and he hit it a mile,” Lidge said. “The first pitch was a slider. I tried to repeat the same pitch, and I left it up in the zone.”

Lidge had saved three straight in this NLCS, but couldn’t get the one that would have meant the most in Houston, which is in its 44th season and still hasn’t been to the World Series.

“There’s nothing that’s going to take away the hurt. Nothing can take it away from any of us,” said Lance Berkman, whose three-run homer in the seventh inning had put Houston ahead. “We all feel for him. There’s nothing you can say, but we love him.”

After striking out John Rodriguez and John Mabry for the first two outs, Lidge was ahead of the pesky Eckstein with a 1-2 count, and had thrown nine of his 12 pitches for strikes.

The normally aggressive Edmonds swung through one pitch but laid off four others for a walk – and up came Pujols.

“The mistake we made is walking Edmonds,” manager Phil Garner said.

Arguably the game’s most dangerous hitter, Pujols had been 0-for-4, having popped out with two runners on in the first and striking out with two on in the third.

But he left no doubt this time with his second homer of the series, which landed on the railroad track high above the left-field seats.

“A slider, that’s his main weapon,” said Pujols, who was just 3-for-14 against Lidge before that. “It was a good pitch to hit, and I gave it my best swing.”

Before giving up a run in the Astros’ 4-3 victory in Game 3 Saturday, Lidge had pitched 301â3 consecutive scoreless innings against St. Louis since Sept. 14, 2003 – including six innings in last year’s NLCS that the Cardinals won in seven games.

The right-hander had 42 saves in the regular season, his first as the full-time closer.