Cards have Mets seeing red
ST. LOUIS — One win from the World Series, with their ace on the mound. Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals are all set to finish off the Mets.
A big swing by Pujols and another playoff gem from a rejuvenated Jeff Weaver sent St. Louis to a 4-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night and a 3-2 lead in the NL championship series.
Chris Carpenter, last year's Cy Young Award winner, can close it out Wednesday night in Game 6 at Shea Stadium, which would give the Cardinals their second pennant in three years and a date with the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
"Couldn't ask for a better situation," Weaver said.
Pujols was in a good mood, too, and he actually had a few nice things to say about Tom Glavine this time.
After claiming Glavine "wasn't good at all" in the opener even though he pitched seven shutout innings, the 2005 NL MVP finally touched up New York's soft-tossing lefty with a rally-starting homer in the fourth.
"He doesn't give in too much," Pujols said. "I'm just glad it went out of the park."
The Cardinals also got timely hits from Preston Wilson and Ronnie Belliard, and an insurance homer by pinch-hitter Chris Duncan. With the red-clad crowd of 46,496 twirling white towels, St. Louis' young bullpen held on in the late innings after getting roughed up during New York's 12-5 victory in Game 4.
Now, the Mets must count on rookie right-hander John Maine tonight as they try to force a Game 7 at home.
"We're backed into a corner," David Wright said. "We're going to go out there and play relaxed, play loose tomorrow, try to come out swinging and break their hearts."
The second rainout of the series Monday night gave Glavine and Weaver a chance to pitch on regular rest instead of only a three-day break. And for the second time in the series, the clubs will travel without a day off.
Making his 35th postseason start, the most in major league history, Glavine got just 12 outs.
"They hit my bad pitches. I made a few mistakes tonight and didn't get away with them," he said. "I didn't feel like they made all that many adjustments. I made a mistake to Albert, he hit it. I made a mistake on Preston and he hit it for a double. All the other ones were kind of bloopers and groundballs that went through holes."
Weaver, on the other hand, earned his second impressive playoff victory.
"I think one advantage of playing a team in a long series like this is the opportunity to pitch twice. You get a pretty good read off of their approach last time," Weaver said. "I knew what they had hit before."
Pujols' homer put St. Louis on the board and snapped Glavine's 22-inning scoreless streak that dated to his final regular-season start at Washington.
"I think we made him work," Pujols said. "We hit the ball the other way and he obviously left a couple of balls up. We took advantage."
The 40-year-old Glavine threw four-hit ball in Game 1, beating Weaver 2-0 on Carlos Beltran's two-run homer.
But Weaver got the better of this matchup. Cast off by the Los Angeles Angels this summer to make roster room for little brother Jered, the St. Louis right-hander kept Beltran and Carlos Delgado in check, yielding only two runs and six hits in six strong innings.
"I don't even remember the first half of the season," Weaver said. "Just continued to believe in myself that eventually things would turn around."
The Mets put runners at second and third with one out in the eighth, but Randy Flores retired Shawn Green on a shallow fly and rookie Adam Wainwright struck out Jose Valentin looking to preserve a two-run lead. Wainwright fanned Jose Reyes to end the game for his second save of the postseason.
