Look Familiar?

The mightily flawed St. Louis Cardinals defeated the equally vulnerable New York Metropolitans last night, 3-1, in a decisive Game 7 held inside the cavernous eyesore that is Shea Stadium. It was The Night of The Two Pitchers who, without the usual pedigree, managed to go deep into the night without allowing either offense to take hold. It was the night of The Fantastic Play, where Endy Chavez robbed Scott Rolen of a 2 run home run by climbing the center field wall, reaching out his harm, and literally pulling the ball back from the chasm and into the ball yard. It was also The Night of Wasted Chances, with men in scoring position looking more like fixtures on the horizon that wanderers itching to find their way home. It was, to be sure, a joy to watch, with a 1-1 tie carried all the way up to the top of the 9th inning, when it suddenly became The Night of The Unlikely Hero, Yadier Molina, who happened to be one of the few Redbirds swinging the bat with any sort of consistency.

Unfortunately, though my Redbirds punched their ticket to the big dance, it looks as if this is just going to be another walk in the park for the Junior Circuit Rep. Even without a Game 7, neither the Cardinals nor the Mets had the horses in the rotation to compete with a lineup firing on all cylinders like that of the Tigers. Now that LaRussa was forced to throw Jeff Suppan last night to stack the odds in his favor, their rotation has to be built around availability instead of ability, meaning we won't see Carpenter, Suppan or Weaver until Game 2. Who's going to step in? It can't be Anthony Reyes, though he did manage to shut down the White Sox in a 1-0 interleague loss. So, the honor must go to someone like Jason Marquis, who, I think, changed his middle name to "Inconsistent."

If you add the DH, the rest, and the home field start for Detroit, it's hard to bet against them in this, the 102nd World Series.

Once again, go Cardinals.