Hopes of Mets Now Rest With the Cubs : Cardinals Salvage Final Game, 4-3, Lead N.Y. by 2 With 3 to Play

was maddening and saddening and emotionally draining, and Keith Hernandez needed a smoke. The New York Mets had been beaten, despite his 5-for-5. They had lost Thursday night’s game to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3, and now trailed by two games with three to go.

“Anybody got a cigarette?” Hernandez asked, not seeing the Winston Lights near his feet. Someone pointed to them. He picked up the pack and lit one up.

“It’s not over with, yet,” he said. “We could be one game out again tomorrow.”

He puffed and puffed, and spoke the same sentence like a mantra. “It’s not over with, yet. It’s not over with, yet. They gotta play the Cubs. The Cubs are gonna come in here with the idea of getting us back in it. We’re not out of it, yet. We’re not out of it, yet.”

Hernandez looked up. He spotted a man from Chicago. “You gonna be here tomorrow?” he asked.

The sportswriter said he would not, but a New York reporter said he would.

“Would you give Sarge an envelope for me?” Sarge was Gary Matthews, the Cub outfielder.

“Good,” Hernandez said, and went to get it.

It contained two things. One was a copy of a column written by John Sonderegger in Tuesday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a column that said the Cardinals would have absolutely no trouble with their final opponents should they get past the Mets. “He ripped the Cubs,” Hernandez said. “He called ‘em the Flubs.”

He handed over the envelope for Matthews. “Make sure you give it to him,” he said.

The other thing enclosed was a personal note. It read: “Beat ‘em.”

Only the Cubs can help the Mets now. They must win in St. Louis at least twice, while the Mets are sweeping Montreal in New York. In case of a tie, the Cardinals must come to Shea Stadium Monday for a one-game playoff.

“I played 8 1/2 years here,” Hernandez said, “and there’s a great rivalry between the Cubs and the Cardinals. The Cubs will not come here and lay down. I promise you that. I promise you that.” Down a hallway, though, the Cardinals were of good cheer. One more win clinches a tie. They had thrown five pitchers and the kitchen sink at the Mets to salvage the last game of the season’s biggest series. They now had 99 wins and were masters of their own fate in the National League East.

“We feel we’ve still got to take two out of three to clinch it,” second baseman Tommy Herr said--the same Herr who had cautioned the Mets in the morning papers with a bowling analogy, saying two strikes did not a turkey make.

The Cardinals nearly did blow three in a row. The Mets scored once in the first inning Thursday, but could have scored a bunch. Four of the first five batters got singles.

Mookie Wilson began the game with one and took second on a grounder. Hernandez then hit a screamer off the right-field fence. It banged back so quickly, Hernandez was held to a single, and Wilson was nearly thrown out at the plate.

Gary Carter and Darryl Strawberry followed with singles, but once again, the balls hopped along the AstroTurf in such a hurry, the runners could advance only one base at a time.

With the bases loaded and one out, Cardinal pitcher Danny Cox got George Foster to force Hernandez at home. Howard Johnson grounded out, ending what should have been a big inning.

St. Louis tied the game in the second. Terry Pendleton singled and raced to third on a wild pitch. Ozzie Smith’s ground-out got him home.

On defense, the Mets tried everything but nickel backs and blitzes to bother the Cardinal hitters. Whenever Darrell Porter batted, second baseman Wally Backman moved back 50 feet into right field. Whenever Vince Coleman batted, left fielder Foster lined up 10 steps or less from the left-field line, guarding against extra bases.

Vincent Van Go found an opening, though. Making up for lost time after an 0-for-19 slump that ended Wednesday, Coleman got three hits, including a two-out, two-run single to left field in the fourth inning that gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

The Mets got one back in the fifth on Hernandez’s third hit, a double down the right-field line. But in the sixth, singles by Smith, Coleman and McGee made it 4-2 for the Cards.

It didn’t hurt the home team any that the Mets had a shaky rookie on the mound. Rick Aguilera, the kid from West Covina, balked once and lost another pitch by putting his hand to his mouth. “The first inning I was pretty nervous,” Aguilera said, “but after that I think I was fine.”

So did Hernandez, who said: “Aggie showed me something tonight. If there’s a 163rd game and he has to pitch it, that’ll be OK with me.”

After the three hits, the balk and a 400-foot fly to the center-field fence Aguilera surrendered in the sixth, Met Manager Davey Johnson had seen enough, lifting him for a pinch-hitter.

Cox did not last much longer. As soon as he walked that pinch-hitter leading off the seventh, Whitey Herzog immediately replaced him with Ken Dayley. There were no Dwight Goodens, John Tudors, Ron Darlings or Joaquin Andujars working this game. This one was up to the bullpens.

Herzog used Dayley for three batters, Todd Worrell for four, Rick Horton for five and Jeff Lahti for one.

Lahti saved the game with one pitch. Hernandez kept the game alive with a two-out infield single off Horton in the ninth. But Lahti came in to get Carter on a short fly to right, stopping the Mets cold.

Hernandez had done everything he could to stop it. He had been booed unmercifully for three days. “They weren’t gonna get me out,” he said. “I wasn’t gonna make the last out. I just wasn’t.”

A reporter asked him if he could sum up the situation now.

“Yeah. I can sum it up in three words,” he said: It’s not over. “

He dragged on his smoke.

“You want to go four words?” Hernandez asked.

Yeah, the man said.

“ Yet, “ he said.