Well, well, look who's still playing

[RS Davis]

Well, well, look who's still playing
By Bernie Miklasz
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/09/2006
Bernie Miklasz

All but counted out in the final days of September, the Cardinals had the audacity to survive and advance into the next round of October. With the Yankees, Twins, Dodgers and Padres already fallen, the Cardinals are still standing, still defiantly pouring champagne into their open wounds.

Suddenly it's a red October, an October of redemption. And it wasn't supposed to happen this way. The Cardinals entered the postseason with the fewest wins and the most scars. As St. Louis staggered into the National League Division Series and the optimistic atmosphere set by the hopeful Padres and their fans in San Diego, Cardinal red looked like the color of fresh bloodstains. Soon the bedraggled Cardinals would be put out of their misery. Three and out.

"It's fun to be an underdog for a change," Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt said Sunday night, after his franchise booked passage to New York and the NL Championship Series with a 6-2 clincher over the Padres in Game 4 of the NLDS. "The last couple of seasons, we were expected to win. That can be a difficult role. It might be more fun this way."

The Cardinals are more intriguing, more mysterious, than ever as they prepare to engage the New York Mets. Maybe this NLDS did nothing for the Cardinals but serve them up as an easy mark, a hapless victim, for the powerful Mets and the howling mob at Shea Stadium. The Cardinals will be heavy underdogs again, but as DeWitt suggests, that's a plus.

When you are a team that lost nearly everything, finding the way back can take you to places you'd never dreamed of. Remember the old Kris Kristofferson lyric: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

If lost and found is the story of the 2006 Cardinals, we watched another installment in Game 4 through the exploits of ace Chris Carpenter. He got off awkwardly during a 35-pitch first inning, with the Padres piecing together two hits and three walks for a 2-0 lead.

With Carpenter calmed down, new Cardinals baseball hero Ronnie Belliard cranked things up with a two-run single off Woody Williams in the bottom half of the first. Belliard, who had a superb series with the glove and the bat, lifted the heavy mood that had settled over the crowd.

Emboldened by the counterattack, Carpenter dug in and became a stabilizer, needing only 67 pitches to mow his way through the next six innings. Carpenter retired 17 of the next 20 Padres to firmly hold the unreleased force of momentum in place until the Cardinals' hitters could make their move.

The Padres left the bases loaded in the first, an unopened gift that will haunt them into the offseason. After that, Carpenter put the Padres down to earn his second victory of the series. And the kids in the Cards-care, day-care bullpen — Tyler Johnson, Josh Kinney, Adam Wainwright — got the final six outs to put the Padres away. This closed a phenomenal NLDS for Cardinals relievers, who didn't get nicked for a single run in 13 1/3 innings of rapid-fire responses.

Still, it was Carpenter's resolute jaw that set the tone for the Game 4 rising. He wouldn't fall in that fateful first. "Classic Chris," manager Tony La Russa said. "Because at the end of the inning they had two runs, not four or five. When we walked out of there with two runs, guys on the bench were yelling, 'It's only two, only two.' ''

The Cardinals finally erupted in the sixth. Rather than risk a head-on confrontation with Albert Pujols in a 2-2 game to start the inning, Williams pitched carefully and AP walked. It would be the first thread pulled in an unraveling.

With one out, Juan Encarnacion went drilling in the right-field corner for a triple that finished Williams and scored Pujols, giving the home team a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish. The triple was a huge hit for Encarnacion, who was not a huge hit with Cardinals fans who misread his smooth style as non-hustle. So take a moment to comprehend the irony of Encarnacion charging into third after delivering the series-winning RBI. La Dominica! Jim Edmonds gave Encarnacion a game ball in the joyous clubhouse.

A second fabulous turn at-bat in the sixth came from Scott Spiezio. Spiezio fell behind 1-2 in the count to the Padres' wicked sidearmer, Cla Meredith, but stayed down on a sinker and centered an RBI single up the middle for a 4-2 lead. The Padres suddenly were lost in mid-America; third baseman Russell Branyan's error on a harmless Carpenter grounder gave the Cardinals a 5-2 lead.

With the Padres stunned, David Eckstein caressed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Spiezio. It was 6-2 Cardinals, and the organization's fifth NLCS in seven years was in the grip of the team, and the crowd. The Cardinals are off to New York as this incredible journey continues. No, this is not the 105-win monster of 2004. It is not the 100-win machine of 2005. It is not a Cardinals team equipped with overwhelming talent.

"We've got a bunch of grinders," Carpenter said. "Bunch of professionals. Guys that come out and play as hard as they can."

So in this season that seemed lost, and was suddenly found, perhaps the Cardinals discovered their true soul in the dark and lonely corner of the late-season crisis. In the final days of September, the Cardinals nearly faded into shame. Instead, they fought back. And like their tough-minded starting pitcher on Sunday night, they're still pumping, still standing, and bracing for New York's best shot. [/b]