Wagner Survives Ninth, Mets Live to Play Another Day
October 18, 2006 by Geoff Young
Filed under Playoffs
The New York Mets, behind John Maine and four relievers, including a very shaky Billy Wagner, defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2, on Wednesday night at Shea Stadium in Game 6 of the NLCS. On the Albert Pujols scale of impressive pitching jobs, where Tom Glavine “wasn’t good at all” and Chris Young is “not difficult at all,” Maine’s performance for the Mets was downright lousy, as the young right-hander allowed two hits and four walks over 5 1/3 innings.
Wagner, meantime, continued to make things interesting late, as post-season superhero So Taguchi doubled in two runs with two out in the top of the ninth before David Eckstein, representing the tying run, grounded out to second base to end the ballgame. The two teams hook up again for the deciding Game 7 at Shea on Thursday. Open questions are who will start for the Mets (apparently lefty Darren Oliver, who hasn’t started a major league game since 2004) and how in the world does Taguchi — a .281/.331/.399 hitter over parts of five big league seasons — manage to go 4-for-4 with two homers and a double in the playoffs?
