Cardinals win NL pennant

Yadier Molina's two-run home run in the ninth inningThursday night gave the visiting St. Louis Cardinals a 3-1 win over the New York Mets in Game 7 of the National League championship —and a spot in the World Series.

Molina's homer off reliever Aaron Heilman before 56,000 fans at Shea Stadium wasthe catcher'ssecond of the National League Championship Series, and scored Scott Rolen, who had singled with one out.

"Everybody said I don't hit, and I proved them wrong," said Molina, a standout defensive player.

The Metsmade things interesting in the bottom of the ninth, leading off with singles from Jose Valentin and Endy Chavez before Cardinals reliever Adam Wainwright struck out pinch hitter Cliff Floyd and got Jose Reyes to line out.

Paul Lo Duca then walked to load the bases before Wainwright froze slugger Carlos Beltran with a breaking ball to end the game.

"I can't let my team down right there," said Wainwright, who has three saves in the post-season.

Super Suppan

The Cardinals will begin their second World Series in three years on Saturday nightin Detroit against the American League champion Tigers.

St. Louis starter Jeff Suppanpitched seven-plus strong innings, surrendering just one run on two hits while striking out a pair, though he walked five.

The performance — along with the eight shutout innings he tossed in the Cardinals' Game 3 win — earned Suppan NLCS most valuable player honours.

"All you can do is the best you can," Suppan said. "You're really able to go out there pitch by pitch, and that's what I did.

"I just tried to keep rolling and forget about what happened in the past."

Inning-Endy double play

A breathtaking outfield catch by Chavez in the sixth inning will likely be one of the most memorable in Major League Baseball playoff history.

With a Cardinals runner on first, one outand the gametied at 1-1, Rolen belted an offering from Mets starter OliverPerez deep to left field.The ball seemed headedover the fence, but Chavez raced back and leapt tobarely snag it.

He then fired it tofirst base, doubling off Jim Edmonds.

"I had to check because my glove almost went out of my hand. I didn't know if I kept it inside," said Chavez, who received two curtain calls from the boisterous fans. "I jumped as high as I can. Like a 10 per cent chance in my mind I could catch it. I had to improvise myself and do it on the run."

Perhaps the play rattled Rolen,who made a throwing error in the next inning that helped New York load the bases with one out. But Suppan struck out Valentin and got — who else? — Chavez to fly out to end the threat.

In the decisive ninth inning, Molina smacked a soaring shot to nearly the same spot in left field.Some Mets fans surely entertained the thought of another highlight-reel catch, but Chavez could only watch as the ball sailed well beyond the wall.

Oliver twist

Contrary to many predictions, unheralded starters Suppan and Perez pitched strong games.

Perez went 3-13 during the regular season andsome considered him to be the worst pitcher ever to start the seventh game of a league championship series. But hepitched six strong innings, giving up one run on four hits while striking out four and walking two.

Unfortunately, the Mets couldn't produce much offence for Perez, who was pitching on three days rest after going5 2/3inningsto earnthe win in Game 4.

"It's really disappointing. It was a great game," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We just didn't get any big hits."

The Mets opened the scoring in the home half of the first inning when the slumping David Wright (3 for 21 in the first six games of the NLCS) blooped a single into right field to score Beltran, who had doubled with two out.

St. Louis drew even in the second when Ronnie Belliard dropped a long sacrifice bunt to the right side of the infield to score Edmonds.

Edmonds had led off the inning with a single, then advanced to third on a one-out pop single by Molina.