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NEW YORK -- Tony La Russa could not have had a wider smile on his face as he watched catcher Yadier Molina put one of the most historic swings in St. Louis baseball history on Aaron Heilman's flat ninth-inning change-up.
He grinned when he first laid eyes on Molina. He was glued to the brief, one-pitch at-bat, a trace of a smile still creasing his face as he watched the pitch. And he laughed like an excited schoolboy when the baseball carried over the fence, the two-run homer secure, the World Series now in full view.
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| Yadier Molina hit .216 this season, but got the hit that matters. (Getty Images) |
Outside, in the clubhouse, the Cardinals were spraying champagne in all directions. World Series, here they come. All 83 regular season wins of them, thanks to Molina's ninth-inning heroics that sent the Cardinals to a tense 3-1 win that wasn't over until Adam Wainwright badly fooled Carlos Beltran with a curveball for strike three with the bases loaded and two out and Shea rocking in the bottom of the ninth.
Inside, in the manager's office, with the television up in the corner of the room playing Game 7 highlights on a seemingly endless loop, La Russa was breathing easy -- finally -- after a season that eked every ounce of sweat out of the Cardinals that they could muster.
That 83-78 record? The only team in history to win fewer games and play in a World Series was the 1973 New York Mets, who were 82-79.
Until Saturday, when the Cardinals line up for Game 1 in Detroit in what will be a reprise of the 1968 World Series.
"It's been a really difficult year," La Russa said. "We kept saying, 'If we get in, we're going to be a really difficult team in the postseason. And I think it's true. We can do a lot of things, and I don't think many people want to play us.
"Coming to the park today, I kept thinking about Charlie Lau (the old major leaguer who became a legendary hitting coach). Charlie told me that you don't have a chance to have a good club until you reach 90 wins. Until you win 90, you're not a good club," La Russa said. "I said, 'Today we could become a good club. Today, we could win 90 games.'"
It took seven stellar innings from right-hander Jeff Suppan, who out-pitched Oliver Perez on a night on which Perez's stuff, especially in the first few innings, was electric.
It took a second-inning squeeze bunt from Ronnie Belliard that scored Jim Edmonds with the Cardinals' first run.
It took resiliency and hope and toughness after Endy Chavez made one of the greatest postseason catches in history, going up and over the left-field fence to snow cone Scott Rolen's blast that should have been a two-run homer that would have snapped a 1-1 tie.
It took Molina's homer, a 1-2-3 eighth from reliever Randy Flores and a rollercoaster ride conducted by Adam Wainwright in the ninth.
After all of that, the Cardinals nailed down their seventh postseason win -- they beat San Diego in the best-of-5 first-round, then won four against the Mets -- and ...
... And, in New York, they could not believe it. The instant Molina homered in the top of the ninth, Shea Stadium went from electric to power outage more quickly than a lightning bolt can leave you with no juice for your fridge and coffee pot. After Beltran struck out to end the game? The Shea Stadium scoreboard rolled over to flash "10th inning."
It was as if they were not willing to let what should have been a magical, 97-win season escape.
"When you go out and bust it all year from spring training, it's definitely disappointing," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "I'm real proud of my guys. I say it over and over and over again. I told them many times this year how much I appreciate their resolve and their attitude and the character."
Resolve? It was all over the place Thursday night in as pulsating a Game 7 as you could ever want to find. But nowhere was it more in evidence than when the Cardinals failed to pack up their equipment bags and hang their heads after Chavez simply stole the homer away from Rolen.
"Best damn swing I've put on a ball in the last two years in the playoffs," said a champagne-soaked Rolen, referring to 2004 and this fall (he missed last year's playoffs after undergoing shoulder surgery). "It was a swift kick in the shin. I thought it went over."
In the dugout, the Cardinals couldn't believe it.
"It was like I got shot," Belliard said. "I was jumping out saying, 'Get out! Get out!' and then he caught it. I stayed on my knees for five minutes after that."
Rolen said something about thinking the ball bounced on the home-run side of the fence and then seeing it in Chavez's glove and figuring the left fielder had caught it on the bounce. He said something about thinking maybe it was a home run and Chavez somehow picked it up after that. Then Scott Spiezio came over and sprayed a direct hit of champagne on Rolen and someone asked him about his thinking that Chavez picked the ball up after it was a homer.
"I said that," Rolen said. "I mean that. But I don't know what the hell happened."
Truth? That pretty much summarizes this entire postseason in general, the NLCS in specific and Game 7 without a doubt.
How do you explain Yadier Molina -- he of the Royal Catching Molina family -- putting a ball where Rolen didn't, far out of the reach of Chavez over the left-field fence in the game's turning point?
"Yeah, I was scared," said Molina, whose brother Bengie catches for Toronto and whose brother Jose catches for the Los Angeles Angels. "I was praying, 'Keep it away from Chavez.' He's a Superman out there. But it feels good, especially because we're going to the World Series."
Molina batted just .216 during a terrible season offensively and hit only six homers in 417 at-bats.
"I'm real excited for him," said St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, who was silent in the series, finishing with a homer and one RBI. "He had an up-and-down year, but he swung the bat in the championship series. We don't have one hero here. Everybody needs to contribute. That's why we're National League champions. Everybody contributed, and our pitching held up."
As did their character. They could have been wholly deflated after Chavez robbed Rolen, but no.
"I told Scotty, I make a joke that it can only happen to him," Pujols said. "He finally scorched the ball, and they made a great catch like that. But he swung the bat good the last couple of days. That's good to see."
How resilient were these Cardinals?
Before Thursday, the last 11 times the home team had won Game 6 to force a Game 7 in the postseason, the home team then went on to win Game 7.
Before Thursday, the last time a visiting team had lost Game 6 and then stood back up to win Game 7 was in the 1975 World Series, when Cincinnati watched Carlton Fisk wave his famous home run fair in Game 6 before the Reds won Game 7.
"We knew coming in here that the only chance we would have to get that fourth win would be to mentally tough it out," La Russa said. "Because the fans were going to make a lot of noise, and they have a good club. No way were we going to walk in here and win a fourth game without mentally toughing it out."
Which, as the Cardinals head toward their 17th World Series in a season in which they will not show any quit, isn't a bad plan moving forward, either.