This is what the Cardinals needed, in many more ways than one. This is what Cardinal Nation needed, a crash cart shock to the heart to let us know we have a real ball club out there. That was about as exciting a Game 2 as I could have wanted, down twice throughout the game and coming in tied to face Wagner, it seemed like we had fought hard to come back and now were going to have to flip a coin on some late inning chance. Instead, we taguchied the game into our own hands and sparked a powder keg of momentum and confidence that has been missing in the last few years.

Carlos Delgado is a true monster. And even though it was an early inning in game 2, I couldn't help but think that Bill Buckner's karma was coming full circle on Monster's little error at first. The Mets are an incredible opponent, but I think we have found the backdoor to this team. Enough about them.

What the Cardinals did right:

We hit.

With a nice mix of patience and contact, the Cards put a lot of pressure on young, shaky John Maine early in the game. With the lack of rest days and the obvious weakness of Met starting pitching, it appears our best attack is straight against these starters. Not only will we tire the arms of their formidable bullpen by forcing as many pitches from them as early as possible, we will get a lot of looks against these guys. This could be very important if we get to a game 6 or 7.

The Card's infantry stepped up.

We got timely hits and great at bats from the off spots of our lineup. Spiezio, Belliard, Eckstein, Encarnacion and YADY! all posed problems for opposing pitchers. There is nothing more we can ask from these guys, other than the solid team defense they're putting on the field. No easy outs. Make contact.

We won in spite of Carp and Pujols.

By the second half of the game, Pujols had lightened up and started spraying the ball to the corners. Albert also drew a key walk from a tenacious at bat. But in general, this game was won without our go to guys. Carp did not have his best stuff or even his second best stuff, and Pujols did not have to carry the whole team on his back. Instead, we picked both these guys up and carried them to the finish with a flood of effort.

Rolen and Edmonds are doing their part.

Yes, Rolen is obviously not 100%, but he is contributing when he can and is not hurting us with stubbornness. Edmonds is just a great player for us and is showing his steadiness at the plate with power and patience. We would all rather have a healthy Rolen and a non-concussed Edmonds, but for now I'll take these guys as-is.

TLR is showing us how he has won so many games.

Could last night have been any more of a feather in the cap of Tony LaRussa? Finally, he has pushed his micromanagement skills to the side and has dealt well with the major issues of the team. In past postseasons, a valid criticism of the Tony has been his stubborn starting of the veteran guys, in spite of any result. Benching Rolen must have been a difficult decision, but it is that kind of hard decision that managers need to make and that TLR is finally showing stomach rather than brains for. Speizio's start couldn't have paid more dividends. And even though Duncan didn't do much at the plate, I liked his start as well. Then, as if LaRussa had access to the game from the next day's paper, he subbed in Taguchi and Rolen for defensive purposes. Rolen comes up huge on a great play to his left, and of course we all know what Taguchi did. Wow. It seemed too perfect. TLR is showing that before you worry about splits and peripherals, you get in touch with your players and give your team the best chance to perform from the opening pitch. Keep it up Tony.

Card's Mojo.

To win a post season series, you need to have some breaks go your way and you need surprise peformances to elevate the play of your team. Taguchi and Speizio did this for us in a huge way. The ebb and flow of this game could not have helped the Cards anymore. Simply put, it completely demoralized the Mets and their sorry fans. Jose Reyes couldn't do his spritely little dance by the end of the game and half of the fans had left before the bottom of the ninth. What kind of fans are these? They're Mets fans. Showing we could withstand two shots from Delgado as well as Reyes scoring from first against a half-cocked ace and still come out on top on a chilly night at Shea is as debilitating for the Mets as it is uplifting for the Birds on Bats.

There's still a lot of baseball to play, and the Mets are still a dangerous team, but now we have some momentum coming into our home park and a hyped crowd to boot. And don't be surprised if the Red Imperial starts showing up on fan faces everywhere.