Suppan fired up for friendly competition

ST. LOUIS -- If they didn't know better, the Cardinals might suspect that he's the embedded Town Teamer, as Tom Gordon sometimes appeared to be for the Yankees this month.

Jeff Suppan was on the Boston roster for last year's American League Championship Series. He spent five years in the organization. He knows everyone from the general manager to the parking lot attendants. He probably carved his name in the bullpen wall at Fenway.

So, wouldn't he leave a couple of fastballs up for his old teammates here tonight just as a courtesy? Not a chance. No double agentry going on here. Suppan is a Redbird of a different feather this October.

"I definitely feel part of the Cardinals organization," said the man who will duel Pedro Martinez in Game 3 of the World Series at Busch Stadium. "It's definitely been nice for me to be a Cardinal from Day 1, going through spring training with everybody, going through all the ups and downs of the season. I feel more a part of this team right now."

The 29-year-old righthander already has been doused with champagne twice this month after beating the Dodgers to claim their National League Division Series and the Astros (and Roger Clemens) to clinch the pennant. Now, he's the man who stands between the Cardinals and the precipice.

If Suppan can't beat his old club tonight, St. Louis will go down, 0-3, against the only team in major league history that's ever come back from 0-3 in a best-of-seven series. Which is why he's getting the ball tonight.

"The guys in Boston know him very well," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "They also know there's a reason why [the Cardinals] are pitching him in Game 3. They have a lot of respect for what he can do here."

When the regular season ended, Suppan wasn't sure when he'd be getting the ball. St. Louis had five starters -- Woody Williams, Matt Morris, Jason Marquis, Chris Carpenter, and Suppan -- for four starting spots in the playoffs.

"I didn't spend any time worrying about it," Suppan said, "because the way we play as a team, whatever role I was put in, I was going to do the best I could."

When Carpenter stayed on the sideline with an irritated nerve in his pitching arm, the numbers solved themselves. Since Suppan was the staff's road warrior (he was 10-0 away from home until the Astros beat him in his final start), he got the second game in Los Angeles and the first one in Houston. Now, he finds himself barring the stadium door against a familiar band of idiots.

None of them were around when Suppan was drafted by the Sox as a California high schooler in the second round in 1993. He worked his way up to the Fens through Sarasota, Trenton, and Pawtucket, playing 39 games across three seasons in a Boston uniform before Arizona grabbed him in the 1997 expansion draft.

After Suppan went 1-7 in 1998, the Diamondbacks dealt him to Kansas City, where he was 39-51 during four seasons for the Royals before they set him loose. From there, it was half a season in Pittsburgh before the Sox picked him up with Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez after last year's All-Star break.

Had things gone better during his time with the Sox, Suppan might have been one of the "idiots." But going 3-4 with a 5.57 earned run average in 10 starts didn't help. "I didn't pitch very well," he conceded. He was left off the roster for the Division Series against Oakland because the club wanted to keep the door open for injured right fielder Trot Nixon. Then he was added for the Yankees, but gathered cobwebs.

"I didn't get a chance to pitch, but that's how it is," Suppan said with a shrug. "There's no hard feelings."

Things have worked well down by the Mississippi. Suppan, who is 78-84 lifetime, was a career-best 16-9 this summer. He was given the ball twice when champagne was chilling and twice he's had it streaming into his eyes. Tonight, though, all that's at stake is survival.

"He needs to make pitches against that lineup," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa, "and he's capable."

The road warrior has become the home guard for a club that hasn't lost here in this postseason. If the Cardinals can manage two out of three here, they'll be back on Yawkey Way for the weekend. And if they end up needing a dozen cases of bubbly, the embedded Town Teamer knows where to find a package store.