The thin red line
ST. LOUIS – The shot off David Eckstein's bat sailed into left-center field one inch deep enough and one inch long enough to avoid winding up in the outstretched glove of Craig Monroe.
By the time the ball caromed off Monroe's mitt for a double, leaving the Detroit Tigers left fielder face down in the wet grass wondering how in the world this World Series could possibly be slipping away, Aaron Miles crossed home plate for what would be the St. Louis Cardinals' winning run Thursday in a dramatic, come-from-behind 5-4 victory that typified everything this magical October has been.
Give the Cards an inch and they just might take the Series.
"This is the type of team that, if you give them a little crack, they take advantage of it," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, whose team keeps offering up just enough cracks to find itself backed into a 3-1 series deficit and backed up against winter with Game 5 at Busch Stadium on Friday.
"They're very good," Leyland added.
No one thought the Cardinals were very good when all of this began three weeks ago. They were the team with just 83 regular-season wins, three lengthy losing streaks, a less-than-tranquil clubhouse and a September near-collapse that almost left them home and in the history books for all the wrong reasons.
Three weeks later, they are on the verge of a championship that almost no one saw coming.
"We went through a lot of issues this year," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "It was a very difficult year in a lot of ways. The biggest thing, the most consistent thing we had, was heart."
The Cards are showing all of it now. You'd think this team always has a puncher's chance with Albert Pujols going for it, but St. Louis isn't winning because he is slugging them home. The Cardinals' star is hitting just .167 with one home run in the Series. He had just one RBI in the National League Championship Series.
Meanwhile, the supposedly light-hitting, small guys such as Eckstein are driving in clutch runs. One reason the eighth-inning double had that extra inch to spare is because Monroe was playing too shallow, unconvinced Eckstein could even hit it as far as he did.
"Yeah," Eckstein laughed, "I do hit a lot of balls that are short."
St. Louis is on the verge because of gutsy pitching (six decent innings by Jeff Suppan), a strong bullpen, a cast of different heroes on different nights and a loose mentality of a team that is living well past its expectations.
It is almost like the Cardinals know they were supposed to be buried long ago, and, with each game, the why-not attitude grows.
"It's baseball," Suppan shrugged. "Anything's possible."
Meanwhile, Detroit, the favored team from the better league, keeps kicking away games. A pitcher has committed an error in each game, and on Thursday, Curtis Granderson slipped on the wet outfield grass, Fernando Rodney threw away a sacrifice bunt and Monroe just missed catching the key hit.
Because of the tough conditions – cold, wind and rain describes this series – most of the mistakes are understandable except for the fact that St. Louis isn't making any of them, at least none that cost the Cards.
"They've made some big mistakes at big times," Miles said of the Tigers. "Sometimes our capitalizing on them is just 'keep running.' "
Considering this team trailed 3-0 and then saw a 4-3 lead evaporate only to shrug it off and win dramatically Thursday, there appears to be no fear of failure. And by scoring four of five runs with two outs, you can't question St. Louis' clutch hitting.
"Whatever happens, good or bad, move on," Suppan said. "You go to the next thing you have to do."
That means closing out the Tigers behind Jeff Weaver on Friday. No one wants to return to Detroit, where Tigers ace Kenny Rogers, who has thrown 23 scoreless innings in Comerica Park, awaits in what should be a chilly Game 6.
"The last thing we want to do is start disrespecting them," Cardinals left fielder Preston Wilson said.
To do so would be to do what everyone has done to St. Louis this postseason. The Cardinals weren't supposed to get in, then get by San Diego, then beat the Mets, then maybe even win a game in the Series.
Now they are one victory from the money, from winning it all.
"Here in this series we've been tuning out the distractions, just trying to play the game," La Russa said. "We're just trying to play really hard and really well and that's why we're in this position, just trying to play good baseball."
It isn't fancy. It didn't seem possible. But it's working. The 83-win team that entered October leaking oil is one win from showering in champagne.
