Birds of a feather

DETROIT -- Four teams in their league finished with a better record. Eight teams in the American League had more wins, including the Red Sox, who were considered flops back home.

They had a losing record after the All-Star break, lost seven in a row down the stretch, and didn't clinch their division until the last day of the regular season. They were heavy underdogs to the Padres in the Division Series, and an even longer shot against the Mets in the National League Championship Series.

Their best lefthanded starter was hurt most of the season. Their closer was shut down in September because of hip surgery, the job falling to a rookie. Their Gold Glove center fielder had recurring episodes of post-concussion syndrome. Their Gold Glove third baseman had a bum shoulder and was feuding with the manager. Their Game 1 starter in the NLCS had flunked trials on both coasts and lost his job to his little brother. Their slugger had no reliable protection hitting behind him.

And yet the St. Louis Cardinals are here in the World Series for the 17th time in their history and the second time in three years.

Might make a person wonder what passed between them when Jeff Suppan, the most valuable player in the NLCS, was granted an audience with the Pope when he visited the Vatican in January.

"I don't think anybody expected us to play in the World Series," said third baseman Scott Rolen, the champagne still flowing freely in the visitors' clubhouse after the Cardinals beat the Mets, 3-1, in a tension-saturated Game 7 Thursday night.

"It's been a unique season because we've had so many ups and downs," general manager Walt Jocketty said earlier this week. "We've had so many injuries, a new ballpark, uncertain how things were going to play out. Having lost [Mark] Mulder early in the year. Losing Izzy [Jason Isringhausen] at the end. But this team continues to be resilient, bounce back, and play well."

The Cardinals have won nine World Series, more than any team other than the Yankees (26). They will not be favored against the Tigers, who won seven straight games against the Yankees and Athletics. The Tigers have been off all week. The Cardinals just arrived after two rainouts and seven games, which came down to the third-strike curveball from rookie closer Adam Wainwright that put Carlos Beltran and the Mets into cold storage until spring.

The Cardinals are used to this. They've been on the other side, too. The last time they were in the World Series, in 2004, they were coming off a 105-win regular season. They were swept by the Red Sox in the Series. Form, they are well aware, doesn't always hold.

"I think we're a dangerous club to compete [against]," manager Tony La Russa said yesterday.

The Mets did not win despite a catch for the ages by Endy Chavez, and despite loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth against Wainwright, who could be a starter next season. The Mets lost with Beltran's bat on his shoulder and their expensive closer, Billy Wagner, sitting in the bullpen. This was not the luck of the Irish. A Notre Damer, Aaron Heilman, gave up the winning two-run home run to Yadier Molina in the ninth.

"I couldn't feel my feet," Molina said of his trip around the bases.

Moments later, Wainwright broke the Mets' hearts by striking out Beltran, who has hit more postseason home runs against the Cardinals than anyone except Babe Ruth (they both have seven).

"Crazy, unbelievable," Wainwright said of the heart-stopping ninth.

Twice, the Cardinals beat the Mets at home on ninth-inning home runs by improbable sluggers. Molina hit six home runs all season and batted .216, the lowest average among Cardinals starters. He hit two home runs in the series. So Taguchi beat Wagner with a home run in Game 2, then hit a two-run double off Wagner in the ninth inning of Game 6.

"During the regular season, I got him out every time," Wagner said. "Now, he's Babe Ruth."

The big man, Albert Pujols, hit a meaningful home run, but so did Suppan, a pitcher, just the second of his career, and David Eckstein, who has two in 154 postseason at-bats, and Chris Duncan, a lefthanded hitter whose only hit in eight at-bats in the series was a pinch-hit home run off a lefty. Duncan was batting just .170 against lefties this season. La Russa still thought Duncan was the best option. La Russa also decided to move Molina up one spot in the order, to No. 7, in Game 7, and was rewarded with as big a hit as any Cardinal has ever had in a Game 7.

La Russa can't take credit for Ronnie Belliard's 0-and-2 safety squeeze bunt that accounted for the Cardinals' first run in Game 7. Belliard did that on his own.

Suppan had an 0.60 ERA in two starts against the NL's top lineup, and after the first inning did not give up a hit. Cardinal s starters, with Jeff Weaver giving them an unexpected lift, had a 2.81 ERA in the series. Belliard and Weaver weren't with the Cardinals when the season began. Preston Wilson, whose double knocked in the winning run in Game 5, was in Houston. Reliever Josh Kinney, splendid in a setup role, was in the minors; so was Duncan.

They're all in the World Series now. They sure look like they belong.