With Maine to Thank, Mets Force Game 7

With his teammates and fans crossing their fingers, John Maine held the Cardinals scoreless over 5 1/3 innings, and the Mets bats scratched their way to a 4-2 win over St. Louis on Wednesday. The win forces a deciding seventh game in the National League Championship Series on Thursday.

Maine provided more than the Mets expected, and the potent Mets offense got enough off St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter. Billy Wagner made Mets fans sweat -- and even boo a little -- by allowing two runs in the ninth, but a two-run seventh made that stumble a worry rather than a catastrophe. Wagner's bullpen mates played a large role. Chad Bradford, Guillermo Mota and Aaron Heilman didn't allow a run before Wagner came on. They'll all be available tomorrow, and the Mets will treat them like they can rest in November.

And what about tomorrow? The Mets have the home-field advantage, not an insignificant one in the National League, where home pitchers can go longer without being pinch-hit for. But they have Oliver Perez and his three days' rest taking the mound against a rested Jeff Suppan, who shut out the Mets for eight innings in Game 3. Few of the matchups in this series have turned out as envisioned. If it follows form, Game 7 will be unpredictable.

Photo of what would prove to be game winning runs scoring in the 7th inning by Tien Mao

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By Tom Boorstein on October 19, 2006 12:00 AM

Comments [rss]

mr met

my baseball head's size knows no bounds!

watch it grow!!

go mets!!!

Mets Grrl

Maine provided more than the Mets expected

No, Maine provided more than YOU, and everyone else who isn't a Mets fan and wants us to just roll over and die, expected.

MetFanatic

Metsies....Metsies....Metsies.....

;-D

;-D

;-D

;-D

;-D

LET'S GO METS!!!!!!

tien

shea will be nuts tonight, but i think it's important that the mets don't get behind or too far behind early in the game. that would take the air out of the stadium.

and i really don't think that suppan has another game like that in him.

an Adirondacker

I think this guy beats out both Jen and Tom:

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/08/24/illin_the_gotha_3.php

You tell me if you can understand a word this guy is saying. I think Gothamist got Kapil an editor recently, since the clarity of his posts have improved immensely over the past few months.

EricGewiz

Tonight's gonna get interesting, but the Mets keep fighting along. It's probably going to be a slugfest for both teams; but so long as So Taguchi doens't start (which is unlikely), it'll be hard for the Cards to really get a rally going.

LETS GO METS!!!!

Jen

(Oh, Rodney, how I've missed you.)

Shea will be crazy tonight!

mickster

LET'S GO METS!!!!

LET'S GO METS!!!!

LET'S GO METS!!!!

Screw grammar-and the Cardinals for that matter!

WE WANT DETROIT! WE WANT DETROIT! WE WANT DETROIT!

But let's get serious---Suppan might have held us scoreless last game-but I will guarantee you the Mets have studied his pitching and seeing him for a 4th, 5th, 6th time around (may he be knocked out early) will only make it easy for them to POUND HIM!!!!

Neil Epstein

esl & rodney - wow, who cares?

GO METS!

Rodney P. Sweetchops

I think that Tom may in fact be a worse writer than Jen Chung. How Gothamist managed to find someone worse than Jen is a miracle, but even miracles happen occasionally.

eats, shoots and leaves

the Mets' bats scratched THEIR way.

See how I used the possessive of the plural Mets by adding an apostrophe? Do you also see how I made the subject and the verb agree? You know what a subject and verb are, don't you?

Oh, and the bats didn't win, the Mets did. So, perhaps "the Mets' bats scratched them to a win," makes some sense (but remains a little awkward), but your sentence is nonsense.