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NLCS St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets 8:00 on FOX


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my friend (10:02:45 PM): look what we found

my friend (10:02:46 PM): a hit

me (10:03:56 PM): doesnt matter

me (10:03:58 PM): beltran sucks at shea

me (10:04:02 PM): and so far this postseason

me (10:04:18 PM): for the most part

me (10:04:20 PM): his obp is good

me (10:05:58 PM): just kidding

my friend (10:06:02 PM): AHHHHHHHHH

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Glavine, Beltran lift Mets in opener

Lefty's seven scoreless innings supported by two-run homer

 

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Carlos Beltran and the Mets had plenty of reasons to smile on Thursday night. (Winslow Townson/AP)

 

NEW YORK -- Unspoken in the public prologue of their second postseason assignment was a sense of urgency the Mets developed quickly on Wednesday night, when postponement of the first game of their National League Championship Series made their mission an even greater challenge. The Cardinals and the Mets' mounting medical misfortune was enough adversity, but then Mother Nature added water.

Perhaps the window was closing on the Mets; perhaps it wasn't. But they understood this: They had best win the games started by Tom Glavine if they are to reach the World Series; they had best win the games when the circumstances favor them, because -- truth be told -- there may not be too many of them.

 

The Mets implemented that thinking in their NLDS appearance after losing planned Game 1 starting pitcher Orlando Hernandez, winning Glavine's start and dispatching the Dodgers in three games. And they followed through against the Cardinals in the first game of the NLCS on Thursday night. With Glavine pitching splendidly through seven scoreless innings, and Carlos Beltran awakening the Mets' slumbering offense with a two-run home run in the sixth inning, they handled the Cardinals in the first game of the best-of-seven series and kept their postseason record unsmudged.

 

With a tense 2-0 victory, the Mets avoided a deficit that could be perilous for a team strapped for pitching and in the first stage of a five-games-in-five-days sequence. And they fortified their confidence in a special way. As Billy Wagner put it after saving the victory: "It's not just winning. It's doing what you set out to do. We all knew who's pitching for them tomorrow [Chris Carpenter]. So we wanted to take this game, no question. With Glav pitching, it's what we had to do.

 

"We looked at is as our game to win, and we won it."

 

The victory was an appropriate response to a wonderful placard brought to Shea Stadium by one of the 56,311 patrons, one with a baseball memory that reached to 1948 and the Boston Braves. "Glavine and Maine and pray for rain," it read. As the NLCS moved toward its second engagement, it already has provided two of the three. And John Maine is to start Game 2 on Friday night.

 

Glavine performed brilliantly, precisely as the Mets had anticipated when they signed him away from the Braves. He extended his scoreless innings streak of this postseason to 13 and restored the image he created in the early '90s -- "A big big-game pitcher," manager Willie Randolph called it -- and reinforced with strong performances in the 1995 World Series, 1999 NLCS -- against the Mets -- and in the 2001 NLCS.

 

At the same time, Beltran did the same thing, giving the Cardinals an unsolicited reminder of his stunning performance against them in the 2004 NLCS. That year, he hit four home runs and drove in five runs in 24 at-bats.

 

"A bad flashback," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa called it.

 

Beltran had merely one hit in four at-bats on Thursday, but it was everything the Mets needed.

 

"Their big guys asserted themselves," La Russa said.

 

Their Cardinals counterparts didn't. While Jeff Weaver did have his way with the Mets batting order for five innings, he also gave Beltran a fat 2-2 pitch in the sixth following a two-out single by Paul Lo Duca, the Mets' second hit.

 

And the middle of the Cardinals' batting order didn't live up to its resume against Glavine. Albert Pujols, Juan Encarnacion and Scott Rolen had a composite .376 average in 109 career at-bats against Glavine before Thursday. Their contributions were two walks in 12 plate appearances. Pujols now is hitless with four strikeouts in his last 10 postseason at-bats. But who's counting? He isn't a Yankees third baseman.

 

 

Glavine gave the other Cardinals next to nothing, too. When he was removed for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, he had surrendered four singles and two walks. And he had thrown merely 89 pitches, a significant development, given the likelihood that he will have to start Game 5, if it's necessary, on Monday on short rest. He was replaced in the eighth by Guillermo Mota, who retired Preston Wilson with a runner on base, Pujols on deck and two outs. Wagner pitched around a two-out walk in the ninth for the save.

 

Aside from Beltran's home run, the work of Glavine, Mota and Wagner was reinforced by only the Mets' defense. The Mets made five pretty plays, including one by Beltran, who doubled Pujols off first base after catching a line drive with one out in the fourth inning. An inning later, after Jim Edmonds singled with one out, Endy Chavez, the understudy left fielder, made a diving backhand play in left-center to take a hit away from Ronnie Belliard.

 

Chavez had entered the game after Cliff Floyd aggravated the Achilles tendon strain he suffered Saturday in the NLDS, while batting in the second.

 

"I don't make that catch," Floyd said of Chavez's grab.

 

David Wright made two nice plays at third base on line drives -- one turned into a double play -- and in the ninth, after Wagner retired his first batter, Jose Valentin made a splendid stop, jump and throw to first to deny Encarnacion. Some call it the Jeter play. Randolph, his years showing, called it "his Y.A. Tittle play."

 

"I told the guys in Spring Training that I want them to appreciate defense, recognize it like we do big hits -- high fives and 'Ooos' and 'Aahs,'" Randolph said. "It's contagious. Look how it worked tonight."

 

But this game was Glavine's. The raves were directed at him, appropriately. After the fact, he could acknowledge what he wouldn't allow himself to think before and during his workday -- that the Mets had to win his game.

 

"I understand the perception," he said.

 

He knew he had lifted his team, as he did the Braves teams in all those other Octobers. A sense of achievement filled him. He hadn't felt one so powerful, so encouraging in a while.

 

"He ought to be real happy and proud," his catcher, Lo Duca, said. "He did a great job. In my short time here, he was real good early and he's real good lately. He made us a better team tonight. And we're pretty good all the time."

 

 

 

LETS GET READY FOR GAME 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Maine ready to face Cards in Game 2

Less pressure on rookie with Mets leading Cards in NLCS

 

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Rookie righty John Maine has impressed Mets manager Willie Randolph with his ability to get through tough spots. (Travis Lindquist/Getty Images)

 

NEW YORK -- Mets right-hander John Maine had made only 24 starts in the Major Leagues before Orlando Hernandez tore a calf muscle in his right leg and had to be scratched from a Game 1 start in the National League Division Series against the Dodgers.

Suddenly, Mets manager Willie Randolph turned to the relatively inexperienced Maine and handed him the ball for the opener, just as he's doing for Game 2 of the NL Championship Series against the Cardinals on Friday night at Shea Stadium.

 

Maine, who professed to have a bit of jangled nerves heading into that initial playoff outing, will have a chance to pitch under less pressure by virtue of Tom Glavine's masterpiece in a 2-0 victory in Game 1 on Thursday night. The Mets lead the best-of-seven series, 1-0.

 

"John is going to be nervous. I've been doing this for a long time and I still get nervous, and he has every right to get nervous," said Glavine, the 40-year-old left-hander who notched his sixth career NLCS victory by holding the Cardinals to four hits in his seven innings. "But certainly, we feel he's going to go out there and do what he's done all year long, which is channel that nervousness and give us a chance to win.

 

"I know for me, personally, that whenever I'm pitching, I always want to take the mound with my team ahead in the series. So there's always a relaxing factor [when] you know that your team has a little bit of a cushion."

 

Maine didn't get the decision against the Dodgers that night at Shea Stadium. He was yanked with one out in fifth inning and the Mets leading, 4-1, so left-hander Pedro Feliciano could face Kenny Lofton, who struck out. Maine allowed one run and six hits, while walking two and striking out five in a game the Mets eventually won, 6-5, on their way to a sweep in the best-of-five series.

 

But the experience is something he'll rely heavily upon when he faces veteran St. Louis right-hander Chris Carpenter on Friday.

 

"I was nervous, and you still get some butterflies now," Maine said. "But I saw what the playoff atmosphere was like, and I know what to expect now. It gets crazier and crazier the farther you go, I'm sure, but I kind of know what to expect."

 

Maine was acquired from the Orioles in the Kris Benson trade last winter and was part of the Major League tryout camp the Mets conducted this past season as injuries beset the starting staff.

 

Maine was 6-5 with a 3.60 ERA in 16 appearances, 15 of the them starts. It was enough for Randolph to put his faith in Maine as the postseason began.

 

"Every time he has taken the ball since he's been here, he's proven a lot to me, really," Randolph said. "He's getting better and better at harnessing a lot of his energy. I think that's a big part of it, not just physically, but mentally being able to get through tough spots and trusting himself and just being tough.

 

"He's challenged himself, and I've challenged him personally and he's been there for me. So he's got to the point now where I feel very confident in giving him the ball."

 

With Hernandez still on the shelf and not on the postseason roster at least until the World Series, Maine will get the ball again on Friday.

 

It'll be his second start this year against the Cardinals, who Maine-handled him on Aug. 22 at Shea in a game the Mets won, 8-7. Maine was gone after five innings, having allowed five hits and seven runs -- all of them on two Albert Pujols home runs.

 

Asked if he had any plan this time around for going after the NL Central champions, Maine said: "I don't think my game plan changes that much from team to team. I think maybe patterns of what I throw and what situation I throw pitches in might change a little bit. I still have to be aggressive, and I've still got to go out there and throw strikes. There are certain places in the lineup where you have to realize the score of the inning. Things like that might change your approach a little bit.

 

"Pujols, of course, is one of them, and you've just got to make quality pitches on him. Everyone knows he's a great hitter. You've just got to be careful."

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Billy Wagner was pathetic tonight. :furious: Horrible outing. I gotta give it to the cardinal hitters tonight though, they fouled off a million pitches against all of our pitchers and really got the pitch counts high.

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