St. Louis – High noon of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series arrived at 10:23 CDT on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
On the mound stood St. Louis Cardinals rookie closer Adam Wainwright, staring down New York Mets second baseman Jose Valentin. With two out, Carlos Delgado was on third and David Wright was on second. Wainwright struck out Valentin looking at a 2-2 curveball.
In the ninth, Wainwright made like Mariano Rivera, coolly setting the Mets down in order. He put the finishing touch on the Cardinals’ 4-2 victory by striking out Jose Reyes.
“He’s got so much composure in the toughest situations,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said after his club took a 3-2 series lead.
La Russa could have said exactly the same thing for reborn starting pitcher Jeff Weaver and gimpy slugger Albert Pujols, who crushed a solo homer in the fourth. They set the stage for Wainwright as a red sea of towel-waving fanatics cranked up the volume.
With a victory tonight in Game 6 at Shea Stadium, the Cardinals would advance to their 17th World Series. On the mound for the Cardinals will be Chris Carpenter, a Cy Young Award candidate. Waiting for the National League champions are the rested and ready Detroit Tigers, winners of four straight over Oakland in the ALCS.
“Game 5, especially when it’s a tied series, is very pivotal,” Weaver said. “Especially being here at home, you want to leave on your way to New York feeling good about your chances.”
Weaver made sure of that. He threw six strong six innings, limited the Mets to two runs on six hits while outpitching New York starter Tom Glavine. Glavine, a likely Hall of Famer making his 35th postseason start, gave up three runs on seven hits and walked three. Glavine got the hook in the fifth inning.
“He had one tough inning in the fourth, but outside of that, I thought he pitched pretty well,” Mets manager Willie Randolph said.
But not as well as Weaver.
Despite a sore right hamstring that has cut into his power supply, Pujols’ homer was a screaming liner that just cleared the left-field fence to cut the Mets’ lead to 2-1. Pujols’ homer not only snapped Glavine’s streak of 16 1/3 scoreless postseason innings, it brought the Cardinals back to life and seemed to unnerve Glavine.
He walked Scott Rolen, gave up a single to Jim Edmonds and then surrendered a run-scoring, game-tying single to Ronnie Belliard. Glavine walked Yadier Molina to load the bases, but escaped disaster by inducing a groundball out from Weaver, ending the inning.
The Cardinals scored a run in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead on a run-scoring double by former Rockie Preston Wilson.
Pinch-hitter Chris Duncan gave the Cardinals room to exhale in the sixth, slamming a solo homer to right off reliever Pedro Feliciano, giving the Cardinals their final margin of victory.
“I was just trying to get ready to go for whenever Tony (La Russa) wanted to use me,” Duncan said. “I guess it worked out pretty good.”
The Mets broke through first, scoring their two runs in the fourth off Weaver. Delgado led off with a walk and advanced to third on Shawn Green’s ground-rule double down the right-field line. They both scored on Valentin’s double to right.
But that wasn’t enough to hold off St. Louis.
“This is such a great feeling – especially after I had given up the two runs – to see this team come back and battle,” Weaver said. “I think this shows the character of the team. And to have a 3-2 lead going into New York with Carpenter on the hill, you couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
Staff writer Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
