Cards might as well go all the way
NEW YORK - Two outs, bases loaded, the crowd roaring and Carlos Beltran, the ultimate Cardinals killer, at the plate.
Pedro Martinez, his right arm in a sling, ignored the Mets' 3-1 deficit, shouting in the Mets' dugout, "We're going to win it!"
But right-hander Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals' rookie closer, could think of only one thing: Team. I can not let down my team.
Wainwright' three-pitch sequence — fastball, curveball, curveball — was a stunner. Beltran went down looking, and now there is only one logical way for this illogical season to end: The Cardinals win the World Series.
They aren't better than the Tigers, not when they won only 83 games in the regular season, not even after their stirring, magical 3-1 triumph over the Mets in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.
The Cardinals' offense managed just one run in 11 1/3 innings against two unheralded starting pitchers, Mets right-hander John Maine and left-hander Oliver Perez, in Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS.
And to further diminish their World Series chances, their best starting pitchers, right-handers Chris Carpenter and Jeff Suppan, probably won't even be available until Games 3 and 4.
But say this for the Cardinals: They can take a punch.
Their 22-28 finish matched the second-worst in major-league history by a postseason team in its final 50 games; the Tigers claimed the top spot with their 19-31 season-ending run.
The Cardinals then beat the Padres in the ALDS, but lost Game 1 of the NLCS to the Mets. Even in Game 7, they withstood a spectacular disappointment, a shocking over-the-wall catch by Mets left fielder Endy Chavez to rob Scott Rolen of a two-homer and trigger an inning-ending double play with the score tied 1-1 in the sixth inning.
But Suppan, the NLCS MVP, would not let them lose, pitching into the eighth inning and holding the Mets hitless after the first.
Rolen, at odds with manager Tony La Russa over the condition of his shoulder, the state of his swing and no doubt the war in Iraq, would not let them lose, drilling a one-out single to start the tie-breaking rally in the ninth.
And Yadier Molina, a .216 hitter during the regular season, would not let them lose, hitting the go-ahead homer off Mets right-hander Aaron Heilman after being elevated from eighth to seventh in the lineup by La Russa just for this game.
In the end, it came down to Wainwright, who allowed back-to-back singles to the Mets' No. 7 and 8 hitters to open the ninth, prompting La Russa to jokingly compare him to the pitcher he replaced, the Cardinals' injured, live-on-the-edge closer, Jason Isringhausen.
Wainwright struck out pinch-hitter Cliff Floyd and got Jose Reyes on a fly to center before walking Paul Lo Duca to load the bases. Beltran followed with the entire season resting on one at-bat.
Beltran has hit seven homers against the Cardinals in the league championship play. But against Wainwright, he never had a chance.
"I just went up there, wanted to see the ball and put it in play," Beltran said, his voice trailing off as he repeatedly shook his head, "no."
Amazing how the Cardinals do it.
Their bullpen is full of inexperienced relievers who, aside from a nightmarish Game 4, largely stifled the Mets' offense, the mightiest in the NL.
Their shortstop, David Eckstein, received pain-killing injections before each of the final two games to enable him to play with a sprained left shoulder.
Their performance against opposing left-handers, while better in the postseason, remains enough of an issue to practically ensure that the Tigers will start lefties Kenny Rogers and Jeriome Robertson in four of a possible seven games.
La Russa could have lined up his rotation perfectly — Suppan, Jeff Weaver, Carpenter, all on normal or an extra day's rest — if the Cardinals had closed out the Mets in six games. Instead, rookie right-hander Anthony Reyes is likely to pitch Game 1 and possibly Game 5, if necessary, unless Weaver returns on three days' rest.
Not to further spoil the party, but the last NL team to win a World Series game was the champion 2003 Marlins; the Cardinals were swept in '04 and the Astros in '05.
It's time for that trend to turn upside down, just like everything else in this postseason.
Cardinals in 7.
Not for any good reason. Just because.
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