Ok, with Chris Carpenter pitching for the Cards, you had to hope they were going to win tonight. And when I tuned in and discovered that the score was tied 4-4 after four innings, you had to wonder what had happened to Chris Carpenter. While I watched, the Mets scored two more runs to take a 6-4 lead. Ick.

Since my throat had been bothering me, I went out to the Dairy Queen with daisy_knotwise to have a malt. While were were in the store, the Cards scored two runs to tie it up. I took this as a hint that the Cards might actually do better if I weren't watching, so when we got home, we fired up an episode of JAG on the pseudo-Tivo.

After that, I flipped back to Fox and discovered that the Cards had just taken a 8-6 lead in the top of the ninth. I watched them score another run to make it 9-6 and decided I could chance watching the bottom of the ninth. There were no problems -- with the help of a good stop by Scott Rolen, who'd gone in as a defensive replacement. (If Phil Garner had thought to do that in the All-Star Game, the NL might have home field advantage in the World Series.)

So the Cards win a game that they really needed to win and head off to St. Louis with the series tied at 1-1. Given that I wasn't sure the Cards would get through the first round, that's not too bad.