Good Carpenter, No Wood

Nuts!

Cards - 2
Mets - 4 FINAL

The Cardinals mostly got what they needed from their ace, Chris Carpenter, but were let down by their bats. Two wasted opportunities early sandwiched around a solo-shot by Jose Reyes to lead off the bottom of the first were the first several bad omens for the Cards. Carpenter left the game having surrendered only two runs but the Cardinals had none on the board despite putting runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs twice in the early innings. Having found ways not to score in those situation they found themselves pressing to compensate the rest of the way.

This was, without a doubt, the game the Cards wanted to win rather than extend it to a do-or-die Game 7 on the road. However, if I had to face a Game 7 I'd like to face it with the matchup we have tonight.

It'll be a tough game and Jeff Suppan tends to be less effective on the road. Still, in light of his late-season and post-season history, the Cardinals have to feel better about relying on him in this situation than the Mets feel about Oliver Perez. Despite the hype and his Game 4 win, Perez was not impressive in his first outing at the new Busch. He gave up 5 runs in just over 5 innings but benefited from the batting practice session tossed by some members of the Cards bullpen that day. His job was reduced to holding the Cardinals short of 12 runs which isn't exactly a high-standard.

Of course, because I said that, the bum will probably end up throwing a no-hitter... But I hope not.

Game 7 for the all the National League marbles... NEXT!