MVP Suppan had an escape route

NEW YORK -- He had just seen a certain two-run lead snatched away by Endy Chavez with one of the epic catches in postseason history. His own Gold Glove third baseman, Scott Rolen, had just thrown a wet ball away for a two-base error, and after an intentional walk, the bases were loaded with Mets.

Jose Valentin was at the plate. On-deck was Chavez, with a chance to immortalize himself further in Mets' lore.

What's a man to do?

"You're going to hate me for this answer, buddy," Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan said after the Cardinals defeated the Mets, 3-1, and he'd been named MVP of the National League Championship Series.

"But any time there's any situation that happens, it's over with. You have to focus on that one pitch. I took the same approach as I have in every game I've pitched in."

Suppan, who couldn't make the cut for the Red Sox postseason roster in 2003, threw three-hit, shutout ball against the Mets, the best-hitting lineup in the National League, in Game 3, and after the first inning last night, when the Mets scored their only run on Carlos Beltran's ground-ball double and David Wright's bloop single, he did not allow another hit.

The score was 1-1 when he left after walking Beltran to lead off the eighth, but the game might have been won when he pitched out of that bases-loaded fix in the sixth. He struck out Valentin, and retired Chavez on a routine fly.

``That was probably the moment," La Russa said. ``The crowd is flying, their team is flying high. But he's got a real consistent approach. He gets ready for every game the same way, and he gets ready for every batter the same way."

What is it with these brother acts in New York and last-inning home runs? In 2003, Aaron Boone, brother of Bret, wrecked a Sox October with his extra-inning home run off Tim Wakefield in Game 7 in Yankee Stadium, and last night Yadier Molina, the third in a family of catchers -- brothers Bengie (Blue Jays) and Jose (Angels) preceding him -- who hit the game-winning home run last night off Aaron Heilman in the ninth.

``It was such a great feeling," said Molina, who batted 216 in the regular season, but is batting .348 in the postseason, including two home runs against the Mets. ``I couldn't feel my feet."

Hours before the start of the 2004 World Series, Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who had Scott Rolen in Philadelphia when he was a first-year manager and Rolen a rookie, said: ``He is as dear to me as any player I have ever coached." And Curt Schilling, who was a Phillies teammate, said Rolen was ``the best third baseman who ever played the game."

Hours before Game 7 of the National League Championship Series last night, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa left little doubt that his ongoing battle with Rolen had reached critical mass, when he did not attribute any of Rolen's struggles this postseason to the condition of his surgically repaired left shoulder.

Considering La Russa had given Albert Pujols an injury out a couple of days earlier, when without prompting he said Pujols's hamstring was a hindrance, it was a startling way to treat a player who two years ago won Game 7 of the NLCS with a two-run home run off Roger Clemens, and still has four years and $48 million left on an eight-year, $90 million contract he signed in 2002.

``I'm convinced in my own mind that his struggles are more needing to make an adjustment than his shoulder," La Russa said before the Cardinals advanced to the World Series with a 3-1 win . ``He's like all hitters. When you're used to doing something, it's tough to change. You know, in his case, I think it's more of making an adjustment, a swing adjustment, than it is a shoulder."

Rolen is 6 for 32 (.188) with no RBIs this postseason. He also made errors in Games 6 and 7. Perhaps La Russa did not mean his words to come across as sharply as they sounded, but given the back-and-forth sniping between the two this month -- the issue centering on Rolen's admission that he had not told the Cardinals how much his shoulder was hurting, but still taking exception that La Russa was not playing him -- it raises questions about how the two will coexist going forward. In case you're wondering, Rolen has a no-trade clause in his contract.

``I'm 100 percent of what I can be when I go out there," Rolen said after Game 6. ``I'm going out there with the only way I know to go out there. I have faith in the human, in the man. That's the way I go out on the field. Am I hurt? No. I'm as good as I can be every night when I go out there. I'm not going to make any excuses about it."

Worcester's Ron Darling, who pitched the last Game 7 here for the Mets when they beat the Red Sox in 1986, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Darling said in an interview aired on WFAN radio yesterday it was the only time in his 13-year career he felt certain his team would win. Darling only lasted 3 2/3 innings and left trailing, 3-0, having allowed back-to-back home runs by Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman and an RBI single by Wade Boggs, but the Mets rallied to win, 8-5, on home runs by Ray Knight and Darryl Strawberry . . . Actress Glenn Close sang the national anthem. It was noted that Close was a lifelong Mets fan and had performed the anthem before Game 1 of the '86 World Series. . . . That towel-waving demonstration by Mets fans that opened the Fox telecast was not spontaneous. It came at the prompting of the stadium PA announcer, who advised the fans the cameras would be on.

Oliver Perez's 6.55 ERA has widely been advertised as the highest for a pitcher to start a Game 7. Next on that list was Hal Gregg, who had a 5.88 ERA when he was called upon to pitch for Brooklyn by manager Burt Shotton, who passed over Ralph Branca, a 21-game winner who started and lost Game 1. Gregg was charged with five runs in a fifth inning in which he did not retire a batter and was relegated to the bullpen thereafter. ``Still a sore spot," Branca, now 80, told Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Branca is better known for giving up Bobby Thomson's ``Shot Heard 'Round the World" when the Giants beat the Dodgers in a one-game playoff in 1951. Next on that bad ERA list is Derek Lowe, whose ERA was 5.42 when he beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS in 2004 . . . Some Series minutiae out of Detroit: Bob Seger and Anita Baker will sing before Games 1 and 2, and fired manager Alan Trammell was invited back to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 2. Hall of Famer Al Kaline, longtime Tiger favorite Willie Horton, and owner Mike Ilitch get first-game duties . . . Who has the best chance to join Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds in the 700 (home run) club? According to the soon-to-be-published Bill James Handbook 2007, Alex Rodriguez has a 50-50 chance, followed by Pujols at 31 percent and Andruw Jones of the Braves at 27 percent. Manny Ramírez is fourth, at 19 percent, with David Ortiz sixth at 13 percent . . . Outfielder Wily Mo Peña and pitcher Kyle Snyder are the only Red Sox players eligible for salary arbitration, according to the preliminary list released by the Major League Players Association.