PRESTON WILSON, Tony La Russa’s big lineup move for Game 7 of the NLCS, not only struck out three times, but also almost hurt Jim Edmonds – admittedly not a hard thing to do – when he infringed on the center fielder’s track to a ball to cause a collision on the final out of the fifth inning.
Meanwhile, Edmonds, hitting .211 for the first six games of the series, actually had a hit, a second-inning line drive to right, that, thanks to a single by Yadier Molina, and a safety squeeze by Ronnie Belliard, produced a run. Quite the thing for the St. Louis hitless wonders who, thanks to a Game 3 home run by a pitcher, a key Game 5 double by Wilson (batting under .200 for the series), and a home run by So Taguchi (who had two all season), somehow found themselves one big hit away from taking their 83-win act to the World Series.
Scott Rolen, who had no RBIs in the series, almost had that hit, too, or actually did have it, until Endy Chavez pulled what would have been a two-run homer back over the wall. But just when it looked like the Cardinals’ chances would be too reliant on Albert Pujols again, it turned out they weren’t. With one out in the ninth, Rolen singled and Molina, the most consistent Cardinals hitter in this NLCS, lined Aaron Heilman’s first pitch where, this time, Chavez couldn’t reach it.
So the Cardinals, 3-1 Game 7 winners, are going to the World Series because Pujols got some help after all, In the nick of time, Yada Molina went deep and saved St. Louis from the yada, yada, yada of another early playoff exit because Pujols couldn’t do enough.
In the fifth, after Belliard led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, and David Eckstein was hit with a pitch, up had come Pujols with men on base, finally in a situation where the Mets would be asking for even bigger trouble to walk him. Three previous times in this NLCS, one in which the likely two-time running NL MVP had driven in just one runner – himself, with a solo homer off Tom Glavine – Pujols had come up with a runner in scoring position. And all three times he had been walked. This time he popped up an 0-1 Oliver Perez fastball to end the inning.
And after popping up in the first (the ball was dropped by Carlos Delgado for a two-base error), being walked with one out and first base open following an Eckstein leadoff double in third, and before being intentionally walked in the eighth after Heilman nibbled for three balls with two outs, the fifth was Pujols’ best and only chance. He wasn’t so much successfully defused in this series as he was brightly ignored.
Pujols has hit 12 home runs in 48 postseason games, recorded at least a .300 average in all but two of his eight postseason series, quite the clutch performance chart considering the long history of great players who have suffered horrific postseasons.
“To be productive getting that much attention is special,” said La Russa. “If you want to [not let a star beat you] don’t throw over the middle. But Albert’s fought through that to be as productive as any man can be.”
Pujols’s Game 5 home run against Tom Glavine, started a Cardinals comeback to a win. A first-inning Game 6 double put the Cardinals’ foot on the Mets’ throat until Edmonds swung over strike three by two feet.
Rolen, who missed the 2005 postseason, struggled with post-operative shoulder problems, Edmonds, with a bad foot, contributed sporadically. Bench players contributed, but La Russa still thought he had to take Scott Spiezio, a hero of games 2 and 3, out of the lineup last night because the manager was “not pleased with the way we competed at the plate” in Game 6.
“They’ve all had moments but we haven’t had a game stringing a lot of great at-bats,” La Russa said.
In the end, they needed just one.
