Taguchi, St. Louis get even

NEW YORK -- There was an awkward pause last night while play was held up until So Taguchi could make his way out to left field, having been sent into the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning by manager Tony La Russa after the Cardinals already had taken the field.

Who knew that the National League Championship Series doesn't begin until So Taguchi is in the house?

Taguchi, a 37-year-old defensive specialist from Japan who hit just two home runs in 316 at-bats all season, broke a 6-all tie when he led off the ninth with a home run off Mets closer Billy Wagner in a 9-6 Cardinals win that tied the NLCS at one game apiece.

``Tony said, `Go [to] left,' I was surprised," Taguchi said. ``I said, `Right now?' He said, `Yes.'

``I can't explain. I think it's unbelievable. Who expected me to hit a home run? Nobody, not even me. What can I say?"

Taguchi now has hit as many home runs in October as he hit during the regular season. He homered off Scott Linebrink of the Padres in Game 3.

``One of So's qualities is he plays really well late in the game," La Russa said. ``He plays well late. He's not intimidated at all by pressure situations.

La Russa spoke to Taguchi in his native language as he passed him in the postgame interview room. ``Arigato," he said.

Translation: ``Thanks."

Wagner has appeared in all five of the Mets' games this postseason, saving three of them.

Not this night. Taguchi, 0 for 5 lifetime against Wagner, took a called strike, then fouled off the next two pitches before Wagner threw three straight balls. Taguchi fouled off two more pitches, before launching a fastball over the left-field fence.

The Cardinals added two more runs off Wagner, who was booed off the Shea Stadium mound after yielding doubles to Albert Pujols and Scott Spiezio and an RBI single by Juan Encarnacion.

``Just one of those nights," said Wagner, who was one of the Mets' big-ticket acquisitions last winter (four years, $43 million), posted 40 saves in the regular season, but was unable to keep the Cardinals from ending an eight-game Mets winning streak, including a three-game sweep of the Dodgers in the Division Series. ``Can't explain it. I made some good pitches. Didn't make my best to Taguchi."

Spiezio had tripled in the seventh with two runners aboard to tie the score, missing a home run only because Mets right fielder Shawn Green deflected the ball with his glove just before it cleared the fence. That was the second tying hit of the night by the Cardinals, who had pulled even at 4 on a two-run home run by Jim Edmonds off Mets rookie starter John Maine.

``I felt I had the call correct all the way," said umpiring crew chief Tim Welke, who was in right field but consulted the rest of the crew after La Russa came out to question the call on Spiezio's ball. ``The entire crew was in agreement from their respective vantage points."

Trouble in River City? Not if you're Cardinals rookie Josh Kinney, who hails from a Pennsylvania high school that didn't have a baseball team, picked his college (Quincy, Ill. University) because there was good deer hunting nearby, and was pitching for the River City (Mo.) Rascals in the independent Frontier League when he was signed by the Cardinals five years ago.

Kinney was credited with the win after inducing Carlos Beltran to hit into a double play with two on and one out in the eighth.

Taguchi's home run and Spiezio's late-inning dramatics negated two home runs by Carlos Delgado and a three-hit night by Jose Reyes.

Spiezio was playing only because La Russa could no longer abide the feeble swings of sore-shouldered third baseman Scott Rolen, who was just 1 for 11 in the postseason, including an 0 for 3 with a walk in Game 1 of the NLCS. But Spiezio was no stranger to postseason opportunism. Playing for the Angels in 2002, Spiezio drove in 19 runs, tying the all-time postseason record, and he was 11 for 16 with runners in scoring position.

With the Giants on the verge of eliminating the Angels in Game 6 of the World Series, Spiezio hit a two-run home run that triggered an Angels comeback, one of the more compelling home runs in Series history but often overlooked. ``I didn't limp around the bases," Spiezio said. ``I should have been running, doing some kind of hand gesture or something."

But Spiezio, whose father, Ed, had one at-bat for the Cardinals when they beat Boston's Impossible Dreamers in the 1967 World Series, had fallen on hard times since then. He was a bust in Seattle, where he had back problems and batted just .064 (3 for 47) before the Mariners released him last August. Signed as a minor league free agent by the Cardinals, Spiezio thrived in a utility role, and last night shocked the crowd of 56,349 with his tying triple.

Guillermo Mota, who had pitched out of a two-on, two-out situation in Game 1, gave up a two-out single to Pujols and walked Edmonds before Spiezio launched his drive to right.

``I thought it was a home run," Spiezio said. ``It was really hard for me to tell. It was high, so I was basically watching it all the way.

``In any normal situation, if Rolen was near where he is supposed to be, I wouldn't start," Spiezio said. ``But it does give me a lot of confidence that Tony puts me in that situation."

Uno Carlos had put the Cardinals in a hole. Dos Carlos tried to send them home for the winter. But after losing on Beltran's two-run home run in Game 1, the Cardinals survived the two home runs Delgado hit off their ace, Chris Carpenter, who in five innings gave up five runs on six hits and four walks.

The smart money said that the Cardinals' only chance in this series was if Carpenter won two games. The smart guys weren't counting on Taguchi. Nobody's that smart.

``Oh, this is going to be a fun one to reflect on," La Russa said as the teams packed up for flights to St. Louis, where the series resumes tonight without a break for travel. ``It's a shame we don't have that day off to really enjoy. I'm already thinking about tomorrow.

``But it's a heck of a win, a very, very tough win to give us a chance in the series. I already put the lineup card in my suit jacket, so I can replay the game and enjoy. Going back over the postseasons, this was maybe the best comeback on a club that I've been around."