Fifth team the charm

ST. LOUIS -- In 1993, Jeff Suppan, then a right handed pitcher out of Crespi High in Encino, Calif., was drafted on the second round of baseball's amateur draft by the Red Sox, whose first choice was an outfielder from New Hanover High in Wilmington, N.C.

Suppan, who was claimed in the expansion draft four years later by the Arizona Diamondbacks, said it will be strange to see Trot Nixon, the player drafted ahead of him in '93, in a uniform other than Boston's next season if he leaves as a free agent.

``Trot was a good teammate, he really was," Suppan said. ``He always worked hard. Funny, it's hard to play for a team that long, especially for the Boston Red Sox. What did he play there, eight years?"

Nixon's first full season with the Sox was 1999.

``He plays with everything," Suppan said. ``He's a great player. Certain players you'd like to see them finish in the same uniform. Eight years, that's a long run. You look at Mo Vaughn, as big as he was, he left after eight years. [Mike ] Greenwell played 10, and finished his career there.

``I don't know what his situation is. It's always hard to leave your first team, especially when you've been there that long, because that's what you know, that's how you came up in the game, through one organization. But there's many organizations out there that he could be a part of, but it'll be different."

Suppan smiled. ``Once you go to your third organization, it gets easier."

Suppan is on his fifth. He was traded by Arizona to Kansas City, signed as a free agent with the Pirates in 2003, then was traded back to the Sox at the trading deadline that year for Freddy Sanchez, who won the National League batting title this season.

But Suppan struggled the rest of '03, going 3-4 with a 5.57 ERA in 11 starts -- and was left off the postseason roster. He was allowed to leave again as a free agent after the season, and signed with the Cardinals, where he has become a dependable No. 3 starter behind Chris Carpenter and Mark Mulder, who had season-ending shoulder surgery.

In three seasons with the Cardinals, Suppan has gone 44-26 with a 3.95 ERA in 95 starts. He pitched brilliantly for the Cardinals in Game 3 Saturday night, shutting out the Mets on three hits in eight innings, and also hit the second home run of his career.

``Al Nipper called me," Suppan said, referring to the man who was his first pitching coach in the Sox organization and spent most of last season as Boston's interim pitching coach. ``He always jokes around with me -- `Hey, Soup, I need 20 tickets in the family section, that won't be a problem, right?' But he congratulated me on the game."

Suppan is in line to pitch Game 7 for the Cardinals tomorrow night in New York if the series goes the distance. If the Cardinals win in six, he figures to pitch the opener of the World Series against the Tigers in Detroit. The last time he was called upon to pitch a Game 7, Suppan outdueled Roger Clemens, giving up two runs (one earned) in six innings against Houston in the 2004 National League Championship Series.

He might have been even better here Saturday.

``It was satisfying, of course, but how satisfying, I can't really say," Suppan said. ``You're in the moment. I watch how my family is, and how they are excited, and that's satisfying to me, but I don't feel that excitement the same way they do. I'm trying to execute my game plan and have other things on my mind, but any time you help the team win, it's satisfying."

The Mets are indicating they will likely start left hander Darren Oliver, who flamed out with the Red Sox and had gone 10 years between postseason appearances. Oliver pitched six innings of scoreless mopup in Game 3, which hardly ranks with starting Game 7, but he appears a better alternative than Steve Trachsel, who allowed 10 of the 12 batters he faced to reach in starting Game 3, before departing after taking a liner off his thigh.

Tony La Russa, on what he thought when he first saw Scott Spiezio's red chin hair: ``Personality. Clueless personality. I was trying to figure out if it was his real color. It took me a while to figure out it was dyed. The guy who was clueless was me, not him.

``Since then, the better he does, the cuter he looks. When he struggles, I want him to shave it. It's kind of neat. He's got a helluva personality."

Spiezio, the Cardinals' utilityman whose .682 average (15 for 22) with runners in scoring position is the highest in postseason history, did not start last night against Tom Glavine, whom he has never faced. La Russa elected to go with Scott Rolen, who has great numbers (.358 average) against Glavine, at third base and Preston Wilson, who had a single in three trips against Glavine in Game 1, in left field.

Mets GM Omar Minaya said there was a ``viable" chance that Orlando Hernandez, who missed the first two rounds of the playoffs because of a torn calf, would be activated for the World Series. Hernandez threw 70 pitches in a bullpen session and pronounced himself ready to go . . . How much does it help the Tigers to have a week off while these teams are still playing? According to STATS, Inc., the five teams that have opened the World Series after a break of five days or more have all won the Series: the '95 Braves, the '96 Yankees, the '01 Diamondbacks, the '02 Angels , and the '05 White Sox . . . Turner Sports will televise one of the league championship series beginning next year, after earlier agreeing to show the entire first round of the playoffs and regular-season games. TBS will start with the National League series in 2007, when Fox will carry the American League title round. The networks will alternate the best-of-seven series through 2013.