Start!

Game 1 -- NLCS

Mets 2, Cardinals 0
Mets lead, 1-0

Last night I watched a Mets game that could hardly have been more perfect. It was a tense, tightly contested match-up that was neck-and-neck for all nine innings. There was stellar pitching, there was inspired defense, and there was a mammoth Met bomb off the scoreboard that won the game. Oh, and it opened up the 2006 NLCS.

Everyone wants to talk about Beltran's tater, how he has dominated in a small but freakishly good but still small sample size in October and especially against St. Louis. I think it's great, of course, and I hope all of the chatter will get Chris "Rainy Days & Mondays Move Up My Start" Carpenter and the rest of the Card staff fixated on Beltran while the other guys get their more than capable licks in. Cliff Floyd is out, and it hurts, but pitching & defense win these things, and without Endy Chavez's dazzling display of the latter, who's to say how last night turns out? The lineup has to pick it up for Clifford, just the way Tom Glavine did in unbelievable fashion for his fallen comrades.

Carpenter vs. Maine is one of the few match-ups in this series that seems overwhelmingly Redbird. Much has been made of the advantage garnered by the Cards because of the rainout-induced shift in the rotation, specifically how much better off they are with Carpenter going tonight. Here's a scenario I'm putting atop my wish list: Chris Carpenter, with one less day of rest and away from the friendly neo-Busch, takes a loss tonight against the revved up Met bats; St. Louis is then faced with opening up their home stint the next night without their ace and in a load of hot water. It could happen, and it would make my weekend just a tad less anxious.

John Maine, nobody wants to talk about what you bring to the Mets. Here's hoping that the next after-the-fact media story is a re-visit to the spring trade of Kris Benson, and the Mets laughing last.

For the record, how I have been feeling all week, especially late last night, is precisely why I got so cranky at the Mets for denying me the past few years. The energy is amazing.

Let's Go Mets. It's a mantra simple enough you could teach it to a three-year-old, and I did. Don't let her down.