Tigers ready to devour whoever wins brutal NLCS

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ST. LOUIS -- I've seen the best that the American League has to offer this postseason, and I've seen what the National League is throwing out there, and it all comes down to this one, irrefutable fact: Man, is the NL side of this tournament bad this year. Really, really bad.

I have to admit, it's still a little hard for me to believe in the AL champion Tigers, who tripped their way into the postseason but have trampled everybody in their way since. Read your way down that Detroit lineup. It's not exactly Murderers' Row, you know? It's not even Simple Battery Row.

But have you seen the so-called National League Championship Series? Have you seen the Mets' pitching? Have you seen the Cardinals'? (You might want to call Willie Randolph and Tony La Russa if you have. They're looking for it.)

If this NLCS has proven anything in its four strange and fitful games, it's that the NL representative in this year's World Series -- whoever that may be -- will end up as so much red meat for the Tigers.

Or, to put it in more palatable terms for the NL fans out there, the NL champ will be the rightful underdogs when the World Series begins Saturday.

"With that starting pitching, with that bullpen, with the momentum that they have," Mets third baseman David Wright said about the Tigers, "I would say, yes, that's a fair assessment."

Game 5 of the NLCS was postponed Monday after a day's worth of cold, hard rain swamped St. Louis and soggied Busch Stadium. When officials finally called the game in the late afternoon -- it's now scheduled for Tuesday night -- much of the talk around town was how an extra day's rest might affect the two starters, the Mets' Tom Glavine and the Cards' Jeff Weaver, and how that might change the rest of the series.

But in the big picture, the postponement was little more than a curiosity. A simple delay really doesn't matter, because this NLCS, when you get right down to it, is a sideshow anyway. Everyone knows that these two teams are playing for second place in this postseason.

Look at the Mets. They had the best record in the NL this season, tied with the Yankees for the best record in baseball. But right now they're lucky to be tied with the Cardinals in this NLCS. Outside of Glavine, they don't have a reliable starter, and before Sunday they were hitting .196 in this series.

Look at the Cardinals. They barely cracked .500 this season (83 wins), have a rotation that consists of Chris Carpenter and a handful of hope and have a lineup that, in four games against that miserable New York rotation, is hitting .252. Their hitting stud, Albert Pujols, has a sore hamstring, too, according to La Russa.

And just for fun, take a little gander ahead at the Tigers. After losing Game 1 of their Division Series to the Yankees, they've won seven straight games, sweeping a pitching-rich team (the A's) in the ALCS. Kenny Rogers is throwing like he's 30 again (he hasn't given up a run in two postseason starts). The bullpen has been fantastic (a 1.83 ERA this postseason). And the lineup is hitting .297, with 13 homers in eight postseason games.

That's not all. The Tigers have home field advantage in the World Series. They will have had an entire week off before the Series begins, which will give reliever Joel Zumaya and first baseman Sean Casey plenty of time to get healthy. And let's not forget that the AL, as a whole, has been much better than the NL for the past several years, as interleague play, the All-Star Game and two straight sweeps in the World Series attest. (The NL, by the way, hasn't won back-to-back World Series since 1981-82.)

Can the Mets or the Cardinals -- who will be dog-tired and way off their regular rotation when the World Series begins -- play with the big league?

"This year we've played a lot of good ballclubs," Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran said. "We feel like we can play with anybody."

It's possible, of course, that whoever comes out of the NLCS could dump the Tigers. Stranger things have happened. If the Red Sox can come back from postseason purgatory to win a World Series, the Tigers certainly can be beaten this year.

But whoever wins this NLCS, whenever it's mercifully decided, is going to have to pull off a similar miracle.

"I think once you get here, it's a crapshoot," Glavine said after Monday's postponement. "Not that many people gave [the Tigers] a chance to beat the Yankees. But looking at that now, maybe they should have. They've got a heck of a pitching staff."

The best part about that: The Tigers don't even have to look for theirs. It's healthy, ready and waiting for whoever finally wins the NLCS.