Advance degree

NEW YORK -- They'd already exhausted about all the breathless labels a franchise can concoct: the Amazins', the Miracle Mets, the You Gotta Believe crew, which doesn't even cover the unspeakable comeback they pulled on the Red Sox in 1986.

And last night, when their first two batters reached in the bottom of the ninth inning, the 2006 version of the New York Mets appeared poised to add to their rich history of belief-bending finishes.

But the fabulous finish this night would not belong to the Mets, but to the St. Louis Cardinals, who advanced to the World Series with a 3-1 win over the Metropolitans in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

Yadier Molina, the lightest-hitting regular on the Cardinals' roster, hit a tie breaking, two-run home run in the ninth off Mets reliever Aaron Heilman; rookie closer Adam Wainwright struck out the Mets' best hitter, Carlos Beltran, on three pitches, the last a freeze-'em-till-spring curveball with the bases loaded to end the game; and Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan survived Endy Chavez's catch, perhaps as good as any ever made in October, to send the Cardinals to Detroit for Game 1 tomorrow night.

``That's the last guy I wanted to bat in that situation," said Wainwright, who gave up singles to his first two batters in the ninth. But he struck out pinch hitter Cliff Floyd on a curveball that presaged the one he threw Beltran, retired Jose Reyes on a liner to center, then walked Paul Lo Duca before his confrontation with Beltran, one of the most prolific power hitters in postseason history, with seven home runs in 11 previous LCS games.

``But you know what?" Wainwright said. ``The way this team has played this year, we fought so hard, I wouldn't have it any other way."

Beltran took a called first strike, fouled the next pitch at the plate, then never moved as Wainwright's slow curve cut through the strike zone.

``You have good moments and bad moments in your career," Beltran said afterward. ``This was a bad moment, one I'll have to live with the rest of my life."

Wainwright has only been the Cardinals' closer for a little more than a month, stepping in when Jason Isringhausen went down with a hip injury.

``Crazy, unbelievable," he said of the heart-stopping ninth. ``I can't even remember most of it. My mind is still racing so fast. I had to step off about 25 times just to get my emotions back in order."

Molina hit just six home runs in 417 regular-season at-bats while hitting just .215. But his home run off Heilman, which followed Scott Rolen's single after a nine-pitch at-bat, was just another improbable long ball in a series full of them for the Cards. So Taguchi, Suppan, David Eckstein, and Molina, with the biggest of all.

``It's how you win, isn't it?" manager Tony La Russa said. ``You look at how teams succeed, and you get the heroes that are not maybe who you expected, but they all count.

``That's going to be one of the great memories of this series, the guys who hit the big home runs in this series."

The Mets were seeking to return to the World Series for the first time since 2000, when they were beaten in five games by the Yankees. The Cardinals were trying to get back for the second time in three years; they were swept by the Red Sox in four games in 2004, their only Series despite having advanced to the postseason seven times under La Russa.

The pitching matchups in the final two games of this series were tilted dramatically in the Cardinals' favor. In Game 6, they faced a rookie, John Maine, who was the ``other guy" in the Kris Benson trade, and last night they were presented with Oliver Perez, who merely had the worst numbers of any postseason starter in history.

But the Cardinals went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position in falling, 4-2, in Game 6, the defeat pinned on their Cy Young Award winner, Chris Carpenter, and last night they were 0 for 6 through eight innings against Perez, Chad Bradford, and Heilman.

The burden fell on Suppan, who maintained his composure after Chavez's historic catch and a two-base throwing error by third baseman Rolen to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.

``Huge," Wainwright said. ``That's the game right there. They had a ton of momentum going. If Suppan goes out and gives up a couple of runs, we probably lose that game."

Suppan, who blanked the Mets for eight innings in Game 3, then held them to one run before departing after walking Beltran to open the eighth, was named the series MVP.

Chavez placed himself in any conversation about the greatest catches in postseason history when he took a home run away from the star-crossed Rolen in the sixth. By doubling up Jim Edmonds at first base, on a relay to second baseman Jose Valentin, Chavez evoked memories of the play made by Sandy Amoros of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who sprinted to the left-field line to take extra bases away from Yogi Berra in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series.

Chavez, with one glance at the left-field wall, took long strides to the warning track, sprung as high as his 5-foot-11-inch, 165-pound frame would allow him, and with his glove well over the fence caught Rolen's drive, white showing from the top of the webbing as he pulled it back out of the visiting bullpen.

``I was about 3 or 4 feet away," Wainwright said. ``I was going out there to catch it. I think all of us were. We were so excited, we thought it was a home run. We saw it go over the fence, then come back in. It was like we got kicked in the stomach."

Given that it took place in New York, Chavez's catch will also evoke comparisons to the play made by little Al Gionfriddo, who robbed Joe DiMaggio of what would have been a tying home run in Game 6 of the 1947 Series.

``That was one of the best catches of all time," Wainwright said. ``I'm just a rookie, and it doesn't get much better than that."

He looked around at his champagne-spraying teammates and smiled.

``And it doesn't get any better than this, either."