Cardinals 9 Mets 6, Game 2 of the NLCS

October 13, 2006
Friday Night
Shea Stadium
With Dave

I hate this game. I really really hate it. This was the ultimate bullshit game.

The Mets had a 6-4 lead after 6 innings. Carlos Delgado had two big homeruns. Things were looking great. The Cardinals were finished. No way they were going to come back from a 2 games to nothing deficit. No fucking way.

But then the antichrist Scott Fucking Spiezio hit a blast to the wall that Shawn Green almost caught. Instead it was a two run triple and the game was scored. Spiezio was only in the game because Scott Rolen had been benched for the game.

In the 9th, things all went to shit. As the inning began with a Billy Wagner vs. So Taguchi matchup, Dave said, "This doesn't bode well." On the 9th pitch of the at-bat, Taguchi hit a stunning leadoff homerun to give St. Louis a 7-6 lead. The crowd was completely deflated. When Wagner gave up two more runs, it was all over. A terrible terrible loss. The kid next to me cried out, "That's it. That's it. The Cardinals have just knocked the Mets out of the playoffs."

The talk after the game was about how Wagner doesn't pitch well unless he comes in with a lead and that Randolph shouldn't have brought him into pitch in a tie game. What horseshit. If you are the closer and can supposedly handle pressure situations, you should be able to pitch well in a tie game in the fucking playoffs.

The only consolation? I love So Taguchi. After the game he said, "I can't explain. It's unbelievable. Who expected that I would hit a home run? Maybe nobody. Even me."

Dave had to head back to the office after the game. My train got diverted and I ended up in Bed-Stuy somehow. I got in a livery cab and headed to a neighborhood bar where I got to hear Hot Tub Eric gloat about his boy So. Fucking bullshit.

Other lowlights of the night. Shawn Green's at-bat intro is the Dave Matthews Band. At one point, when a Dave Matthews song was playing, Tony La Russa came out to argue a call. It went on for seemingly forever. I guess La Russa just needed to hear more DMB. Obviously this was all part of La Russa's master plan.
Dave was very tired from working long hours. He actually had fallen asleep for a few pitches during the 1st inning. After Taguchi's homerun, he said, "I should have stayed asleep."

The only lasting highlight of the night (because Delgado's homeruns were wasted) was something SHR had said the night before. All night, I was cracking myself up whenever I thought about her claim that Cardinal Ronnie Belliard is a deadringer for Snoop on The Wire.