ANALYSIS THROUGH TWENTY-TWO WEEKS

MOST IMPRESSIVE: As I wrote about the other day, the Mets' resilience is most notable this past couple of weeks. They showed a great bounce-back ability after the tough loss to the Phillies, beating Philadelphia and then taking two out of three from Florida, including one in very dramatic fashion.

BIGGEST SURPRISE/DISAPPOINTMENT: I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise, because why should the Mets make anything easy, but the fact that they're only up a game entering September is a bit surprising. (I guess from the Mets' point of view, this could qualify as a disappointment, too. So I've combined them.) I really thought there were times this past couple of months the Phillies would roll over and the Mets would be able to run away with the division. And I think you have to credit the Phillies for that not happening, since they've shown some resilience as well. They had to be crushed after the loss to the Mets last Wednesday, and then they lost the first two to the Cubs in Chicago. They responded by taking the last two of that series, keeping themselves a game out. It'll probably be that close for the rest of the month - and that's really not too surprising.

LEAST IMPRESSIVE: Can I go outside the box on this bullpen disaster and suggest that maybe it's the bullpen management? Sure, the arms haven't been reliable, and Aaron Heilman walking in the winning run on Saturday night can make me curse him forever (see: Rogers, Kenny), but there are really no defined roles here, and there haven't been since Jerry Manuel took over. I don't know - things have been so bad all year for the relievers (except for the winning streak in July) that maybe if they were comfortable in where they were appearing it would help. In short, I guess Billy Wagner's injury was bad for everyone. And, being September, it can't hurt to have a few more arms to plug in there thanks to the September call-ups.

MOST IMPRESSIVE: I've written about the Cardinals before, but I don't think I've specifically praised Albert Pujols. Pujols is leading the majors in hitting, at .364. He has been hitting near or above .350 all season, obscured by the fact that Chipper Jones was chasing .400 early in the year. He hit .359 in 2003, so it's not uncharted territory for him, but his power numbers have seemed to take a hit. He's "only" hit 29 homers so far this year.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: With the Twins not expected to do much this year, it probably didn't raise many eyebrows when the schedule was made up. But it might prove to be their downfall. They're in the midst of not just a chase for the wild card, but also a division title, and are finishing up a 14-game road trip, thanks to the Republican National Convention. Then they play 6 at home before hitting the road for 10 more games. That's a tough haul and a tough way to end a season with so much promise. If they indeed persevere and make the playoffs after that kind of finish to September, they've earned it.

LEAST IMPRESSIVE: I guess you can't totally write them off yet, since they took the last two in Arizona, but the Dodgers looked awful during their previous 8 games, all losses, including a sweep by Washington. Again, that National League West is just a disgrace.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Ivan Rodriguez has to be a disappointment for the Yankees. I haven't seen him play much, but I can't imagine his defense (which has to be significantly better than Jorge Posada) makes up for the fact that since the trade he's hitting .203 with 2 HR, 2 RBI, scoring just six times.

Football for the rest of the week, unless something notable comes up in the baseball world.

METS 8, PUJOLS 7

Mets 8, Cardinals 7 (NYM: 76-48, STL: 66-58)

Tuesday night's game is pretty much a microcosm of my feelings about the way the Mets match up with the Cardinals. The only person in that lineup that can beat you is Albert Pujols, which John Maine let happen (twice), and the Cardinals' bullpen stinks. The unfortunate thing is that the Cardinals are very beatable - because of that, their lead in the NL Central is now down to one game over the Reds, and they are in serious trouble when it comes to making the post-season.

John Maine was the starter for the Mets, and he had a bad outing, mostly because of Pujols...but also because he let baserunners on ahead of Pujols. Pujols hit a 3-run homer and a grand slam off Maine, accounting for the entire Cardinals offense (this all came after Maine retired the first nine batters he faced). Lucky for the Mets, Jeff Weaver was the Cardinals' starter, and he gave up two homers to Carlos Delgado - a solo shot and the Mets' team-record 9th grand slam of the year (as well as Delgado's 400th career homer). That narrowed the gap to 7-5, which the Mets got to 7-6 in the 6th.

It stayed that way into the ninth (despite my prayers that the Mets would rock Braden Looper in the 8th inning), when ineffective closer Jason Isringhausen came on for St. Louis. After getting Jose Reyes to ground out, Isringhausen gave up a single to Paul LoDuca, then Carlos Beltran ripped a game-winning homer over the right field wall.

It was an exciting win for the Mets, and it was the type of game where you felt the Mets would come back and win, or at least I did, because of what I've been seeing with the Cardinals' bullpen all year. The interesting thing from this game was the post-game quotes, too, because Beltran talked about how the winner of this series is making a statement. That's good that the Mets are going out to show that they are the best team in the National League - it would be embarrassing for them to lose this series to the Cardinals.

This is a relatively tough stretch for the Mets. After 3 with St. Louis, the Mets host Philadelphia (no doubt looking for revenge for last week's 3 out of 4 series win by the Phillies). Then the Mets go to surprisingly tough Colorado (who they just swept in New York), then they go to Houston before coming back home to take on Atlanta and the Dodgers. Those are some of the better teams in the National League, and it would be fitting that the Mets clinch the division against one of those teams, putting an exclamation point on the Mets' dominance over the National League. (The Atlanta series is September 4, 5, and 6th, too early for a clinching - but wouldn't that have been awesome if the Mets could celebrate the division championship in front of Atlanta.)

Steve Trachsel takes on Mark Mulder in game 2 of the St. Louis series on Wednesday night.


MAGIC NUMBER: The Phillies beat the Cubs on Tuesday night, for the second night in a row, so the Mets' Magic Number only decreases by one. The Phillies can't stay as hot as they've been - I expect this number to start dropping a lot very soon.

GOOD NEWS FOR GLAVINE: I guess it pays to be an optimist. Turns out Tom Glavine will not have to undergo surgery, and will only miss 7-10 days, which is nothing compared to the worst-case scenarios that were being laid out for Glavine. And at his age, a 7-10 day period of rest for his arm isn't the worst thing to happen to the Mets.

GREEN'S GANG: The Mets acquired Shawn Green from the Diamondbacks on Tuesday. Green hasn't been playing much lately, since the Diamondbacks are giving playing time to a youngster, and he's been unhappy about that. The Mets gave up minor league pitcher Evan McLane (who I saw pitch for the Tides at Pawtucket earlier this season on the johnnymets.blogspot.com Lastings Milledge scouting trip). But in order to make room on the 40-man roster for Green, the Mets had to designate Victor Diaz for assignment - so I think another team can pick him up, but if he doesn't get picked up in 10 days, the Mets will retain him. There's a lot of potential in Diaz, but I guess he won't reach it as a Met...what with Milledge, Beltran, and whoever else in their outfield, Diaz was probably destined to be a career minor leaguer in the Mets' organization.

I'm not too crazy about the Mets adding Green. It doesn't seem like something they need right now - but he can change my mind if he plays like the Shawn Green of a few years back, rather than the one of the past couple of years.

THE KID'S KIDS/ALFONZO'S COMEBACK: The rare double minor league rainout. Both the St. Lucie Mets and the Norfolk Tides had their games postponed due to rain on Tuesday night.

I never got around to the Mets season summary (perhaps that will come), but I had to put in my two cents about last night's NLCS Game 5 between the Cardinals and the Astros.

Due to my current teaching life, I no longer stay up to all hours of the night playing video games and watching whatever sporting event that is on TV (like the old days of Arena Football, on the crappy ESPN2). Therefore, I went to bed last night with the Cardinals still winning in the seventh inning, 2-1. That's when the Astros came back, on a Lance Berkman homer, I hear, to take a 4-2 lead.

They took that lead into the ninth, with their invincible closer on the hill, Brad Lidge. All we've heard about this post-season is how Lidge didn't blow a lead for the Astros all season until the final Friday of the regular season. He looked a little shaky on Sunday, but got one of the best-turned double plays of all-time to end the game with the tying run on third, so that had to make him feel only more invincible.

So Lidge strikes out the first two batters of the ninth, then goes to 3-2 on David Eckstein. Eckstein rolls a single into left field. Then Lidge walks Jim Edmonds. Then Albert Pujols launches a bomb to left field, the Cardinals take a 5-4 lead, and go on to win. Now the series shifts to Saint Louis Wednesday and Thursday (if necessary), and everyone thinks the Astros are dead and buried.

I hate to promote the guy, but Bill Simmons wrote a very good article about how the Astros and their fans must feel right now on ESPN.com. (I don't like Simmons because I'm jealous - there, I've said it, OK. I'm jealous at what he does for a living.) Simmons knows the pain, because he is a Red Sox fan, and his comparisons between this game and Game 6 of the 1986 World Series are dead-on.

I'm not so sure that the Astros will collapse, though. I still am not totally sold on the Cardinals - I don't know that they'll be able to close this out. But they really have a home field working for them - the Cardinals fans are going to be nuts about having at least one more, and possibly two more, home games this post-season, and the Astros are facing a very tough go the next one (or two) nights. I do feel, though, that they're capable of putting Monday night's game behind them and closing out the series on Wednesday. We'll see.

I worry, though, about Brad Lidge. His situation too closely resembles Donnie Moore, and we all know what happened to him. I don't think Lidge will do anything drastic personally, but I wonder how this will affect him professionally. He was so dominant this season (and even last year) - I wonder how he handles this type of adversity, on such a big stage. I don't know anything about him, so I don't know his makeup - but I want to root for him to come back and pitch well.

So I should talk about the way I found out about this, just so I can answer those "Where were you when....?" questions. I was sleeping. We talked about that already. But when I woke up, and turned on ESPNEWS, the bottom right corner didn't say "Astros advance to first ever World Series", so I figured the Cardinals won. I was more surprised when I saw the Indianapolis Colts' score. But I waited for the NL spot on the crawl, and saw the final score was 5-4. Still didn't think much of it, other than the fact that it didn't end 2-1. Then it says, "Pujols GW 3-run HR", and I'm doing the math, and thinking "Wow." Then they show the highlights, and the situation was just - and I'm going to use a word here that is so overused today that it has lost some meaning, but here it is applicable - UNBELIEVABLE. This is unbelievable, people. Other stuff that gets tagged "Unbelievable" is really quite believable. It needs to be used less.

Anyway, I love hearing stuff about the 1986 World Series and how the champagne was all ready to go and the podium for the trophy presentation was all set up for the Red Sox in Game 6, and then it had to be all torn down. I'd like to hear about the stuff that went on at Minute Maid Park on Monday night - at least they had another half-inning to get things done, since the Astros had to hit in the bottom half.

At the very least, this NLCS just went from insignificant to somewhat exciting. I'll try to write about it on Thursday.