Here is the final part in the series:
2006 NLCS – St. Louis Cardinals vs New York Mets
Cardinals 4, Mets 3
Series MVP: Jeff Suppan
Game 1 Mets 2, Cardinals 0
WP – Tom Glavine, LP – Jeff Weaver, Sv – Billy Wagner
Game 2 Cardinals 9, Mets 6
WP – Josh Kinney, LP – Billy Wagner
Game 3 Cardinals 5, Mets 0
WP – Jeff Suppan, LP – Steve Trachsel
Game 4 Mets 12, Cardinals 5
WP – Oliver Perez, LP – Brad Thompson
Game 5 Cardinals 5, Mets 2
WP – Jeff Weaver, LP – Tom Glavine, Sv – Adam Wainwright
Game 6 Mets 4, Cardinals 2
WP – John Maine, LP – Chris Carpenter
Game 7 Cardinals 3, Mets 1
WP – Randy Flores, LP – Aaron Heilman, Sv – Adam Wainwright
Tom: This will go down in history as one of the worst sports’ days in my life. The Giants dropping the Super Bowl to Ravens paled in comparison because I really never believed for a second the Giants had a chance. By the third quarter, I was able to just move on to enjoying the party. I went to Shea for the final game of that series. I wrote a blog post before I left and one when I got home. I’ve never felt such a frenetic energy fill a stadium as I did when Endy Chavez pulled that ball from over the wall. I’ve never felt the same collective energy leave a stadium, almost as if a black hole opened over the left field wall, and I’ve never hated a player more than I hated, and still hate, Yadier f’n Molina. The bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, best hitter at the plate… and he watches strike three float. Doesn’t try to flail for contact. Doesn’t try to foul it off and live to fight another day. Nope. Let’s the same curveball that he fouled off, and thought was good enough to swing at on the previous pitch fall in to Yadier f’n Molina’s glove. Go home, kids. Thanks for coming.
I have frequently defended Carlos Beltran’s lack of swing and shifted the focus to the Mets consistently awful bullpen. If Willie Randolph doesn’t put an early hook on John Maine and Guillermo Mota and Billy Wagner don’t give up 5 runs in the last three innings, Game 7 never happens. If Willie Randolph doesn’t decide to start the corpse of Steve Trachsel and his 5 ERA in Game 3, Game 7 never happens. If the bullpen doesn’t give up the lead in Game 4 or 5, Game 7 never happens. It goes down as a lot of missed opportunities and a team that was 10+ wins inferior in the regular season jumped on their opportunities.
But, hey, at least the bad bullpen, the inability to score late in games, and an overall choke wasn’t a foreshadowing or anything.
Eugene: I’m the opposite; this was the pinnicle of my sport’s life at the time (which would last a week). This was the best playoff series I’d had witnessed. There were unlikely heroes – So Taguchi hitting a huge home run early in the series. There were unlikely villains – the Endy Chavez catch deflated us for a short time (but Yadi fixed that). And there was a beautiful pitch – I’ll never forget seeing the bottom drop out of the Adam Wainwright curve that completely froze Beltran.
This was the series that got Jeff Suppan his payday; Milwaukee is still paying for that mistake. Supp dominated the Mets like he’s done to no other team. I don’t know how teams can take performances over short periods and think they mean they are great players. Sure, they big moments on the a large stage, but that doesn’t mean they are the guys to get a team to that level.
Alex: Ugh, this was the most painful series I’ve ever watched. Aaron Heilman, thanks a lot for giving up that home run to Yadier Molina. Carlos Beltran, thanks a lot for watching Wainwright’s curveball go by. With men on base and your team down, you don’t stand there like you don’t know what you’re doing, which is exactly what Beltran did. The Mets lost that series, and after that series they basically lost the rest of the decade…at least when it counted, they lost.
Aaron: Tom’s eulogy remains one of the best “eulogies” after a heartbreaking loss that I’ve ever read. My A’s have torn my heart out on more than one occasion (1988, 1990, 1992, 2000-2003, 2006…wait, and I like baseball?!). I knew a hardcore Mets fan at the time and after New York’s loss in game 7, we found each other on IM. As a preemptive strike, he shot me a line: “I’m not ready to talk about it.” I knew that. I wouldn’t have thought about bringing it up. I’ve been there and I know that feeling. For years – YEARS – I couldn’t watch the Kirk Gibson home run off Dennis Eckersley. Pathetic? Nah. Just passionate, yo.
