Rays/MLB

Cards head to Motown

Yadier Molina's two - run homer in the ninth puts St. Louis in World Series.

By EDUARDO A. ENCINA
Published October 20, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Getty Images] Mets leftfielder Endy Chavez robs Scott Rolen of a home run during the sixth inning at Shea Stadium.

NEW YORK - With one swing, all of Shea Stadium fell quiet and 56,357 hearts fell.

After being turned away inning after inning, St. Louis found a hero in catcher Yadier Molina on Thursday night.

Molina, who hit .216 during the regular season - .138 in the final 10 days of the season - continued a superb postseason, hitting a two-run homer off Aaron Heilman in the ninth inning to give St. Louis a 3-1 victory over New York in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

The win gives the Cardinals a date with the Tigers in the World Series, which begins Saturday in Detroit.

Molina's blast landed just a few feet from where Mets leftfielder Endy Chavez robbed Scott Rolen of a home run three innings earlier.

Molina, who hit six home runs during the regular season, got his second of the NLCS to go along with six RBIs. Overall, he is hitting .333 in the postseason.

The Cardinals arrived in New York on Wednesday with a 3-2 lead in the series. After a one-day delay, the Cardinals celebrated their second trip to the World Series in the past three years.

In the bottom of the ninth, Adam Wainwright allowed seeing-eye singles by Jose Valentin and Chavez. But he struck out pinch-hitter Cliff Floyd looking on a curveball and induced Jose Reyes to fly out to center.

He then walked Paul Lo Duca to load the bases but struck out Carlos Beltran looking on a curveball to prompt a Cardinals celebration near second base.

The Cardinals nearly took the game with one swing of Rolen's bat. But Chavez, who has played with four teams the past three seasons, turned in the best defensive play of the series.

With one on and one out, Rolen laced Mets starter Oliver Perez's first pitch down the leftfield line. In a running stride, Chavez leaped high against the wall and extended his right arm over and behind the fence his entire forearm cleared the top of the wall and caught Rolen's drive snowcone-style.

Alertly, Chavez threw back to first, catching Jim Edmonds before he could tag up. Between innings, Rolen could only stand and stare at third base.

After a full-count walk to Edmonds, Mets manager Willie Randolph had visited the mound, asking Perez one question and Lo Duca, his catcher, another then satisfied with their answers strolled away.

The Cardinals allowed Perez, a trade-deadline acquisition who was 3-13 on the season and held the highest ERA of any postseason starter in history, to work out of numerous jams in six innings of work.

He put runners at first and second with one out after intentionally walking Albert Pujols in the third but got Juan Encarnacion to hit into a 5-4-3 double play. He faced the same situation in the fourth but struck out Preston Wilson and induced Pujols into a popout to shallow left.

On the night, Perez allowed just one run on four hits, striking out four and walking two, one intentional.

Meanwhile, the Mets were held to just two hits in seven-plus innings by Jeff Suppan, who was named series MVP after allowing one run and five hits in 15 innings. He also won Game 3.

The Mets scored first in the opening inning when David Wright, hitting just .143 in this series, hit a run-scoring single to score Beltran from second. For Wright, it was just his second RBI in 25 plate appearances in the NLCS.

The Cardinals tied the score in the second. With runners at first and third with one out and the Mets infield at double-play depth, second baseman Ronnie Belliard dropped a safety squeeze right to the second baseman to score Edmonds from third.

Eduardo A. Encina can be reached at eencina@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 20, 2006, 06:23:58]