October 13, 2006: The Birds Pull Off The Comeback In Game 2 Of The NLCS

On October 13, 2006, at Shea Stadium in New York the Cardinals pulled off a huge comeback 9-6 win in Game 2 of the NLCS versus the Mets. The Mets struck first blood when Carlos Delgado took a Chris Carpenter pitch deep that put three runs on the board in the first inning. It didn't take long for the Birds to answer back, in the second inning John Maine issued a leadoff walk to Jim Edmonds, then Scott Spiezio reached on an error. Maine continued to struggle with his location and ended up walking the bases full by issuing a free pass to Juan Encarnacion. The Mets hurler was able to get John Rodriguez to pop out but didn't have the same luck with the young up and coming catcher Yadier Molina who drove a line drive double into right that scored both Edmonds and Spiezer and cut the Mets lead to 3-2. While Maine was able to get out of the inning with just the two runs scored the Cards had showed they came to play some ball and that they did. Jose Reyes gave the Mets a 4-2 advantage with an RBI in the bottom of the second, before Jimmy Ballgame evened the score at 4 all with a two run shot in the top of the third. It was a true battle and it would be a battle all the way to the end. The Cards fell behind once again in the fifth when Delgado hit his second homer of the ballgame, a solo shot off of Carpenter that gave the Mets a 5-4 lead. Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock took over on the mound in the sixth inning and he got himself in trouble by issuing one out walk to the speedy Reyes, Paul Lo Duca made the reliever pay for that walk by smacking a double into left that brought Reyes flying around the bases and into sore the sixth Mets run of the contest. While the Cardinals trailed the team fought and clawed right back into it. In the seventh inning, Scott Spiezio came to the dish with Albert Pujols standing at second and Jim Edmonds standing at first, the third baseman who was only in the game for an injured Scott Rolen delivered with a triple that brought both runners into score and once again it was a whole new ballgame as the score was tied at 6. It set up for another unlikely hero to give the Redbirds a lead in the ninth, that hero was none other than the So Man, SoTaguchi, he led the inning off with a solo shot off of closer Billy Wagner that gave the Cards a 7-6 lead. Taguchi was only in the game as a defensive replacement, he took over in left for Chris Duncan in the eighth. There was no looking back at that point, Scott Spiezio came up big once again with an RBI double off of Wagner before Encarnacion knocked in the ninth Cardinals run of the ballgame. They still needed three outs to seal the deal in the bottom of the ninth, so Tony LaRussa called on lefty Tyler Johnson to face the dangerous Delgado. Johnson got his job done by striking out Delgado then he handed the ball over to Adam Wainwright who retired David Wright and Shawn Green on back-to-back ground balls to secure the huge W for the Birds.

Check out the box score:http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200610130.shtml

This was such a great series and I like many of you remember this one like it was yesterday. Much like in this game both teams battled each other right to the end before the Cardinals were able to prevail in 7 games.