NEW YORK — It was never easy, not for one day, for the 2006 Cardinals. It was a season of torment, from the injuries, to the losing streaks, the controversies, and the late-season crisis of confidence that nearly wiped them out.

So you knew it would come down to this, a fight and a struggle to the very end. They would leave every heart in the place on the ground, leave our lungs short of oxygen and make every pitch feel like a kick to the solar plexus.

Thursday night in a classic Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, a raging drama was never cooled, not even by the mist that drizzled over the playing field at raucous Shea Stadium. The Mets and Cardinals locked into a memorable, mind-bending duel that exhausted anyone who saw it.

Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan pitched from his heart for seven wondrous innings, battling the Mets' renowned bats to a 1-1 draw.

Mets left fielder Endy Chavez made the catch of a lifetime, stealing a two-run homer from Scott Rolen, a grab that threatened to take the Cardinals' dream away.

But in a season with crazy twists and turns, the Cardinals advanced in a most surprising way, but it also made sense because we've come to expect the unexpected.

Catcher Yadier Molina, who carried the weakest bat in the lineup all year, gunned a two-run homer over the wall in left in the top of the ninth for a 3-1 lead.

And in the bottom of the ninth, rookie closer Adam Wainwright worked himself into a heap of trouble, a bases-loaded jam with two outs, with 56,357 wolves howling at him from the Shea stands.

But when a called third strike settled into Molina's mitt, the clock at Shea Stadium read 11:44 p.m. and New York went into a state of shock. The Cardinals had a 3-1 victory. It was over, just like that, this drama and the Mets' season. Wainwright made Shea Stadium go still, made his teammates go crazy, and made true believers out of all the skeptics who said it couldn't be done.

An 83-win team, going to the World Series?

Can't happen.

Won't happen.

Impossible.

But we really saw it.

The Molina homer, the Wainwright save ...

We saw the Cardinals dancing and leaping about the infield at Shea in a massive group hug. That was confirmation.

It's true: The Cardinals are headed to Detroit for the 2006 World Series.

Game 1 is Saturday night.

Red October is still going strong.

When Molina pounced on Aaron Heilman's high changeup, the tenacious catcher sent it a long way, to a place where Chavez couldn't go. This time, Chavez couldn't take the dream away. The ball soared over his head, and when Molina's majestic home run finally came down, it landed safely in the Cardinals' bullpen. But by now we know where Molina's shot really touched down. It traveled all the way to Detroit, to Comerica Park, to Game 1 of the World Series.

And the Cardinals rode it there.