The Mets bats finally came alive behind Carlos and Carlos (Beltran and Delgado) as New York hit St. Louis hard for 14 hits, including 4 home runs, to beat the Cardinals, 12-5. Beltran reached base 5 times on the evening with 3 hits and 2 walks. He homered twice, scored 4 runs and drove in 2. Delgado wasn't too shabby either, collecting 5 RBI on a 3-run homer and 2-run double. Oliver Perez was far from spectacular, but he did give the Mets 5 2/3 innings of "useful" work before giving way to Chad Bradford, Pedro Feliciano, and Guillermo Mota. Anthony Reyes went just 4 innings for the Cardinals, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks. The St. Louis bullpen, which has been so solid in the playoffs, suddenly imploded and allowed New York to score 3 runs in the 5th inning and 6 runs in the 6th. The series is now even at 2 games apiece as the two teams take the field again tomorrow night with Tom Glavine going for the Mets and Jeff Weaver for the Cards.

Game Notes and Quotes

The 7 home runs combined by both clubs set a new LCS record (previous: 6, done on 6 other occasions).

Q. It's the first time your bullpen has been roughed up in the post-season, are you confident on that they will be able to respond?
TONY LA RUSSA: Yeah, I think everything they had, balls that were hit they were capable of doing better things with. It was a rough night, especially the two right-handers, they are kicking themselves and beating themselves up in the clubhouse. But they are both capable of doing things differently to get better results.

Q. A couple of questions: Perez, was it your confidence in him that you had that pinch-hitting situation there where you could have piled on some more runs in that inning that you sent him up to the plate?
WILLIE RANDOLPH: No. He was going to stay in the game. He was pitching well. We had a three-run lead at the time and I think it was still in the bottom of the fifth. He was going to go back out. He was throwing the ball out.

Q. This is for both you guys: Did the offense feel tonight going into the game down 2-1 and with Perez on the mound that you guys needed to score a lot of runs to win the game?
CARLOS DELGADO: We kind of -- we don't think that way. I am one to believe, let's get one more than them. What we did do was put last night's game behind us, and we went out there with, you know, clean slate, with a good approach, different from last night. We took a lot of pitches. We made their guy work. He probably had 75 pitches by the third inning. We saw a lot of pitches and made him throw a lot of pitches and we got some guys on that came up with some big hits in key situations.
CARLOS BELTRAN: Well, we had a great approach today at the plate. We were letting the guy pitch. We took a few walks and, you know, it felt good, including myself, when I take a walk and have a guy like Carlos behind me and make the guy pay. He hit the home run with two guys on at the same time, and he also hit the double to score two more. Offensively, we did a great job. We was able to go out there and put the ball in play and also we made some good plays defensively.

Oliver Perez went 1-3 with a 6.38 ERA in seven starts with the Mets after being acquired along with righthanded pitcher Roberto Hernandez from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for outfielder Xavier Nady on July 31, 2006…In 36.2 innings, he allowed 41 hits, 26 runs, earned, with 17 walks and 41 strikeouts. Perez will be making his first post-season appearance.

Anthony Reyes is making his first postseason start and appearance in tonight’s Game 4...the rookie made his first start in 2006 on May 20 at Kansas City for an injured Chris Carpenter and then joined the starting rotation for good on May 30...fanned nine batters in two of his last five starts (9/3 vs. PIT & 9/18 at MIL) and had 28 K’s in his last 20.2 IP...he made 17 starts for St. Louis and 13 starts for Triple-A Memphis, pitching a combined 189.1 innings this season, by far the most IP for him in a single season...fanned a combined 154 batters between Triple-A and the Bigs, while walking only 45. Reyes has never faced the New York Mets team over the last two seasons with the Cardinals.

Q. With all of the good right-handed bats you can put in your lineup, do you have any explanation for why you've struggled against left-handed pitchers this year?
TONY LA RUSSA: It's really been a strange deal. It's got us wondering, got us scratching our heads, and I think more than anything else, our approach. We have good, tough right-hand hitters who individually have had success against left-hand pitching and I just think there have been games that our approach could be improved. So we're going to try to improve it the next two days.

Here is the list of league openings for this week.. Please contact the league directly and NOT BDD. This list will also be posted to the blog section of the web site by Monday evening.

Strat-O-Matic Leagues

The Continental Baseball League (CBL) is currently wrapping up its 22nd season and is looking for a few punctual, dedicated baseball fans for 2007. The CBL is a 24 team strat-o-matic play-by-mail league with a unique team identity rule. The draft is held in February, followed by an abbreviated free agent draft in March. The season runs from April - September. Newsletters are published quarterly and also during the offseason. There are currently two openings with the Nationals and Padres franchises available. Interested parties should visit the website at http://www.cblbaseball.com/ and follow the "Email Commissioner" link. BDD officially endorses the CBL!

League Name: Democratic Baseball Association
Simulation Game: Strat-O-Matic
Web Site: http://baseball.dawning-ray.com/
Contact Name: Jamie Imhoff
Contact Email: dba_commish@yahoo.com
Description: 20-team contract league has two openings going into the Email Rookie Draft in November. Free Agent Auction will be in March with Carpenter and Webb leading a loaded FA Class. League plays from April to September with a full off-season. BDD officially endorses the DBA!

League Name: RFBA (Real Fans Baseball Association)
Simulation Game: Strat-o-Matic
Web Site: (http://www.rfba.net)
Contact Name: David Meese
Contact Email: SadieCody@aol.com
Description: The Real Fans Baseball Association is a 24-team carryover Strat league that uses a salary cap and plays the CD-ROM Baseball game. The RFBA was formed about 8 years ago and has received compliments over the years for its strong web site. We are presently looking for a few managers to take over some openings. Three teams are available immediately, as several managers have had to resign recently for personal reasons. BDD officially endorses the RFBA!

League Name: CCNL - Coast to Coast Netplay League
Simulation Game: SOM
Web Site: ccnl.net
Contact Name: Keith Howard
Contact Email: strato@cfl.rr.com
Description (whatever you want can go here): The CCNL is an ALL NetPlay, 24-team baseball league. Going into next season there will be 7 teams available (2 are already filled with last year sub managers). During the off-season, which starts in November, we are going to hold a re-entry draft for all the new managers to start their new teams. So you do not inherit someone else team, you get to draft your own. Check out our website at ccnl.net. If you are interested in joining, contact Keith Howard at strato@cfl.rr.com. Include your phone number as we will not admit anyone into the league without talking to them first.The re-entry player draft will be from the following 7 teams. South Florida, Oconee, Michigan, Alapaca, Yantz, Redwing, Hellina.