Cards Are All In

Roger Clemens faced a tempting proposition Thursday night at Busch Stadium when confronted with an open first base and St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols coming to the plate with two out and the tying run on third in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the National League championship series.

But the 42-year-old Houston ace did not build his Hall of Fame credentials by taking the easy way out, and he was not about to back down against Pujols, especially with cleanup hitter Scott Rolen on deck.

“We thought we could make some good pitches on Pujols,” said Houston Manager Phil Garner, who conferred with Clemens on the mound.

Not good enough. Pujols hit a 1-and-2 fastball to left field for a score-tying double.

With the crazed crowd of 52,140 still ringing in his ears, Clemens tried to pump a first-pitch fastball low and away to Rolen, but he left it inside, where Rolen lifted it for a line-drive, two-run homer that barely cleared the left-field wall.

Two pitches. Three runs.

The sequence catapulted the Cardinals to a 5-2 victory over the Astros and into the World Series, where they will meet the Boston Red Sox. Game 1 is Saturday night at Fenway Park.

“It’s not often that you can break through against someone as good as Roger,” said St. Louis right fielder Larry Walker, whose broken-bat single through a drawn-in infield in the eighth added an insurance run. “Fortunately, tonight we were able to do that.”

St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen capped a series in which the home team won every game by getting Jose Vizcaino to ground out to second baseman Tony Womack, whose throw to Pujols ignited a spirited celebration in the infield.

The Cardinals, who will make their first trip to the World Series since 1987, had to claw back with victories in Games 6 and 7 after the Astros had obliterated a 2-0 series deficit with three consecutive victories at Minute Maid Park.

Rolen’s blast marked the fourth consecutive game in a breathless series in which the winning run came on a late homer. Carlos Beltran had put the Astros ahead in Game 4 with a seventh-inning blast, and walk-off shots by Jeff Kent and Jim Edmonds ended Games 5 and 6, respectively.

“I was thinking about competition, you know, to tell you the truth,” Rolen said of his mind-set going to the plate. “I was thinking about Roger Clemens on the mound, and he might beat me, but I was thinking that I’m going head-to-head here.”

The conclusion of Game 7 was especially bitter for Clemens, who had come out of retirement at the urging of longtime friend Andy Pettitte in an attempt to lead the Astros to the first World Series in the franchise’s 43-year history.

Clemens finished one game short after holding the Cardinals to one run in 5 2/3 innings before the disastrous sequence of events unfolded in the sixth.

“We made some good pitches to Pujols and we made a bad pitch to Rolen,” Garner said. “Got too much of the plate and he made us pay for it.”

The Cardinals’ clutch hitting erased two mistakes that had threatened to overshadow a postseason’s worth of error-free play.

Edmonds’ throwing error in the third led to an unearned run, and careless baserunning by Womack allowed the Astros to pick him off first base in the fifth to curtail a two-on, one-out threat as they clung to a 2-1 lead.

Jeff Suppan, Clemens’ former teammate with the Red Sox, emerged victorious after giving up three hits and two runs -- one unearned -- in six solid innings. Cardinal relievers Kiko Calero, Julian Tavarez and Isringhausen combined for three scoreless innings, with Isringhausen recording his third save of the series.

“You need to give credit to Suppan,” Pujols said. “I mean, this guy made some pitches out there. He got in trouble and he made some pitches.”

Craig Biggio put the Astros ahead on the fourth pitch of the game when he sent a drive just inside the left-field foul pole. That was the postseason-record 24th homer between the teams in the series. Rolen’s blast set the final tally at 25.

Center fielder Edmonds saved the Cardinals from falling into a bigger hole in the second when he made a diving catch on Brad Ausmus’ drive into the left-center gap with two men on, sending them scurrying back to their bases before Clemens struck out to end the inning.

“Perhaps the play of the night that maybe turned the whole thing around was the one Edmonds made,” Garner said. “Maybe we break the game open there.”

But Edmonds ended St. Louis’ record run of 10 consecutive postseason games without an error in the third, when his throw trying to get Beltran tagging up from second skipped past third baseman Rolen and into the Houston dugout, allowing Beltran to jog home and give the Astros a 2-0 lead.

Suppan halved the Cardinals’ deficit in the bottom of the inning when he executed a suicide squeeze to perfection, laying down a bunt to the right side of the mound on Clemens’ 91-mph fastball as Womack sprinted home with St. Louis’ first run.

Suppan pitched out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth by striking out Ausmus and Clemens before retiring the Astros in order in the fifth and sixth, his final two innings.

Womack ran the Cardinals out of a two-on, one-out threat in the fifth when he was picked off first by catcher Ausmus, though replays appeared to show that Womack had beaten the throw to first baseman Jeff Bagwell. Mike Matheny flied to shallow center to end the inning.

Pujols and Rolen made all that frustration disappear one inning later.

“We had no doubt they could do it,” Tavarez said. “Those guys had been hitting machines all year.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

A Study in Red

A look at the two previous World Series meetings between the Red Sox and Cardinals:

1946

With the score tied, 3-3, and two out in the bottom of the eighth of the seventh game, the Cardinals scored the eventual winning run when Harry Walker doubled to center field, Enos Slaughter scoring from first base after Boston shortstop Johnny Pesky hesitated for a split second before throwing home.

1967

The Cardinals led the Series, 3-1, before the Red Sox rallied to win Games 5 and 6. Game 7 matched St. Louis’ Bob Gibson and Boston’s Jim Lonborg. Gibson gave up only three hits, but Lonborg was working on two days’ rest and was shelled in a 7-2 St. Louis victory.

*

Classic Falls

Most World Series appearances by franchise:

*--* * New York Yankees 39 * Dodgers 18 * NY/SF Giants 18 * St. Louis Cardinals 16 * Philadelphia/Oakland A’s 15 * Boston Red Sox 11 * Chicago Cubs 10

*--*