Thus, the Astros claimed both a second consecutive NL wild card title and postseason berth, their sixth playoff appearance in a span of nine seasons.
Four Astros were selected to the MLB All-Star game, including pitchers Roger Clemens, Brad Lidge, and Roy Oswalt, and third baseman Morgan Ensberg.
In February 2005, longtime Astros players Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio were jointly inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
Despite having Roger Clemens on the mound for Game 2, he was outmatched by John Smoltz, who allowed just one run while the Braves used the efforts of rookie Brian McCann (who hit a three-run shot in the second) to win 7–1.
In the bottom of the 18th, with Joey Devine on the mound for Atlanta, Chris Burke would line a shot to left field that cleared the scoreboard for a walk-off home run.
The opponent for the Astros in the Championship Series was a familiar foe: the St. Louis Cardinals, their rival in the National League Central.
Burke lined a tripe with one out and then scored later when Cardinals pitcher Mark Mulder threw a ball past the catcher.
Albert Pujols lined a home run to start the sixth inning, but the Cardinals were out-hit 11-6 and scored no more; Burke and Adam Everett would lend a hand with RBI hits to even the series at one.
In Game 3 back in Houston, Mike Lamb hit a two-run shot off Matt Morris to give them a 2–0 lead in the fourth inning.
Pujols gave the Cardinals the lead on a sacrifice fly in the 4th, but Jason Lane hit a home run off Jeff Suppan to tie it.
Lidge now faced Albert Pujols at the plate; he hit a shot to left field that would give St. Louis a 5–4 lead that proved the difference in making the series now 3–2 in favor of Houston.
With Dan Wheeler on the mound, Yadier Molina hit a flyball to right field that was caught by Jason Lane for the final out, clinching the first ever pennant for the Astros in history.
[9] After having played 4,714 games and their entire major league careers together in Houston, Bagwell and Biggio appeared in their first World Series in 2005.
In the White Sox half of the fourth, Joe Crede hit what turned out to be the game-winning home run.
José Contreras pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits for the win, and Bobby Jenks earned the save to give the White Sox a 1–0 lead in the series.
October 23, 2005 at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago On a miserably cold (51 degrees) and rainy evening, Morgan Ensberg's first-pitch home run off starter Mark Buehrle put the Astros on top in the second inning.
In the seventh inning, Dan Wheeler loaded the bases with a double to Juan Uribe, a walk to Tadahito Iguchi, and home plate umpire Jeff Nelson's ruling that Jermaine Dye was hit by a pitched ball.
In the top of the ninth, White Sox closer Bobby Jenks blew the save when he gave up a two-run game-tying pinch hit single to José Vizcaíno.
In the bottom half of the ninth, Astros closer Brad Lidge gave up a one-out, walk-off home run — the fourteenth in Series history — to Scott Podsednik, giving Lidge his second loss in as many post-season appearances (his previous appearance was in Game 5 of 2005 National League Championship Series).
Before the game, it was ruled by Commissioner Bud Selig that the retractable roof would be open at Minute Maid Park, weather permitting.
It was later shown in replays that the ball should not have been ruled a home run, hitting the left side of the yellow line on the unusual wall in left-center field.
The White Sox rallied in the top of the fifth, true to their "Win Or Die Trying" mantra of 2005, starting with a Joe Crede lead-off homer.
Pierzynski hit a two-out double to Tal's Hill, driving in two runs, scoring Iguchi and Dye giving the White Sox the lead.
In the top of the fourteenth, after the Sox hit into a spectacular double play started by Ensberg, Geoff Blum (a former Astro) homered to right with two outs off Ezequiel Astacio.
Many records were set or tied in the game besides time and innings: The teams combined to use seventeen pitchers (nine for the White Sox, eight for the Astros), throwing a total of 482 pitches, and walking twenty-one batters combined (a dozen by Chicago, nine by Houston); forty-three players were used (the White Sox used twenty-two and the Astros used twenty-one), and thirty men were left on base (fifteen for each team), all new high-water marks in their categories in Fall Classic history.
October 26, 2005 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas Before the game, Major League Baseball unveiled its Latino Legends Team.
The Astros had the best chance of scoring in the sixth, but Jason Lane struck out with the bases loaded to end that rally.
After Morgan Ensberg flew out to center, ChiSox manager Ozzie Guillén brought in Neal Cotts to finish the inning.
It was a bang-bang play as Paul Konerko caught the ball from Uribe at 11:01 p.m. CDT to begin the biggest celebration in Chicago since the sixth NBA championship by the Bulls in 1998, and end the second-longest period without a World Series title (the cross-town Chicago Cubs owned the longest such streak at the time, as they had not won since 1908, until winning in 2016).