Mets 2, Cardinals 1 (middle of the 3rd)

Carlos Beltran’s 2nd inning solo shot off Anthony Reyes (above) ended a 14 inning scoreless drought for the Mets, though until Yadier Molina’s RBI single off the enigmatic Oliver Perez in the home half of the inning, the Cards had been kept off the board for 7 consecutive innings, too.

After Carlos Delgado popped out, David Wright collected his first hit of the NLCS, blasting a Reyes offering to deep left, giving the Mets a 2-1 advantage. Wright’s only hitting .100 in the series, however, so I’ll continue to insist that Derek Jeter make a public show of support — a hug, a candygram, you name it. Things can get ugly when the public turns on a bright, goodlooking guy (or so I’ve read).

Fox is sooo very amusing with the constant shots of St. Louis grandmas sporting raspberry scroatees ala Scott Spiezio. The thing is, only a couple of ’em are glued on.

(UPDATE : Scroatface scored on Juan Encarnacion’s third inning triple, Mets 2, Cards 2, top of the 4th. It feels like getting through 3 innings with only 2 runs allowed by Perez is more than anyone could’ve hoped for. If this is likely to be a battle of the bullpens, I’d love to give the Mets the edge, but the performances thus far by Flores, Kinney, Johnson and Wainright have been exceptional.)