That's a winner

What a glorious night of baseball!!! In case you didn't know, the Cards won game 7 to advance to the World Series! Not only did they win game 7 (after losing game 6) on the road -- the first time a team has done that since 1975 -- but oh how they won. I thought my heart was going to literally stop after Endy Chavez's insane catch to rob Scott Rolen in the 6th inning. I won't go into detail, but let's just say there were some "not nice" words used in the Caffeine house right about then. Yes, it did seem the Mets were "fated" to win when the aforementioned Scott Rolen followed up his near home run with what might have been the most bone-headed error of his career in the bottom of the inning. Somehow, though, Jeff Suppan pitched out of an awful mess and kept things knotted at 1-1. Then the 9th inning. I'm not even going to try to describe that inning, but how beautiful was it to see Carlos Beltran (the Cardinal killer) watch a 2 strike curve float right through the heart of the strike zone? I'll tell you; it was great!

Okay, I'm through romanticizing the game. Once again, Jayson Stark does a nice job capturing all the emotion of the game without getting too sappy (if you're a baseball fan, that is).

Even when I'm not on cloud nine, I usually ignore those "THEY don't want us to win" arguments, but I am wondering about this Keith Law fellow over at ESPN. I noticed an earlier column in which he almost seemed offended that the Cardinals had the temerity to beat the Padres in the first round, but now he seems downright pissed that they'd dare unseat the mighty Mets. Some excerpts, with comments:

The Mets paid the ultimate price for their inability to get the Cardinals' worst hitter out, and the National League's best team was toppled by its sixth- or seventh-best team, giving us Fox's worst nightmare of a World Series -- and a pretty sizable mismatch to boot.

Wow, his first paragraph opens with a slam at Molina and then goes on to whine about (potential) TV ratings and dismiss the Cards' chances of even making it a good Series. That's a lot to get into a lede. How about paragraph 2?

Yadier Molina is a terrible hitter who had his Brian Doyle moment, fluking into a good series and hitting the series-clinching homer on a hanging changeup from Aaron Heilman in the ninth inning. ... Heilman decided to go to the changeup, a mistake given Molina's lack of bat speed and Heilman's velocity; pounding Molina hard in and going away with the changeup once ahead in the count is the best way to pitch to him. Still, if Heilman didn't hang the changeup, Molina probably would've missed the pitch entirely.

Another "dissing" of Molina and evidently Mr. Law has a crystal ball that tells him the awful Molina wouldn't have even made contact had Heilman not offered up the absolute worst pitch he's ever thrown -- or something like that.

Well what about the Cards' pitching? To everyone's surprise, the Cards somehow managed to get the best pitching they've had all year right when it mattered the most. Surely a few words of congratulation there, huh? Nope.

Jeff Suppan wasn't as sharp as he was in Game 3, but he stayed out of the middle of the plate and forced the Mets hitters to choose between waiting him out or swinging at pitches that were very difficult to drive. They chose the latter, letting Suppan off the hook despite his four unintentional walks and a hit batsman.

Suppan pitched into the 8th, giving up only 1 run and 2 hits. Even with the 5 walks (1 intentional) and 1 hit batsman, that's just 1.14 baserunners per inning -- 21% less than the NL playoff average for starting pitchers. Yeah you're right Keith, Suppan really sucked out there, huh?

We already know how Mr. Law feels about Molina's heroics in the top of the 9th, but what's he think about the thriling bottom of the inning? You know, the inning where Adam Wainwright got into a big mess and then pitched brilliantly to get out of it. While Law does at least acknowledge Wainwright's accomplishment in striking out two tough hitters with the game on the line, he can't pass up the opportunity to carp a bit:

It's worth mentioning that strike two on Floyd, while technically a strike, was about six inches above the top of the de facto strike zone. It's pretty awful to suddenly call that pitch a strike in the ninth inning of Game 7 and is yet another instance of the Heisenberg Strike Zone affecting a game.

I watched the replay a few times (thanks to my Tivo-like digital recorder) and the pitch was about 1.5 "ball widths" above the belt. Yes, that pitch is called a ball way too often, but Tim Welke had called a few up there throughout the game. Law greatly exaggerates the "unusualness" of that call.

While we're on that topic though, I'd like to pose a question to Keith Law. Hey, Keith, since you're griping about umpire calls affecting the game, what's your take on that "check swing" by Beltran in the first inning that led to the Mets only run of the night? I felt at the time (and again after replays) that Beltran did NOT check his swing and should have struck out right then and there. [Jayson Stark backs me up on this one. Gee, I like that guy.] The third base ump, though, gave him a reprieve and he went on to spark a 2-out rally that led to the Mets lone score. Why aren't you complaining about that one Keith?

I know I'm probably biased in my irritation at this column, but honestly it's the 2nd or 3rd time I've felt Law was unreasonably harsh on the Cards. After suffering a near legendary collapse at the end of the season and limping into the playoffs with the fewest wins of any of the post-season teams, they just won a thrilling game 7 to make it to the World Series. Would a few words of congratulations and respect be too much to ask? Evidently it is for Keith Law. It riled me.

Regardless, GO CARDS one more time. All we need is 4 more wins!