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On the Diamond Cards know what they're up against in Game 3 in Shea
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com NEW YORK -- The venue has changed but the idea remains the same for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets as they loosen up for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series this afternoon. Both teams want a win -- maybe need a win -- badly. The big difference is that the Cardinals, down two games to none in this first-to-four prelude to the World Series, need it a lot worse. Without a victory from the NL Central division champion Cardinals today, the city of New York will have at least one half of its Subway Series participants practically ticketed and ready to go. "Our situation is win today," Cards manager Tony La Russa said, just a couple hours before the two teams are to play at Shea Stadium. "We need to get into this series." Big right-hander Andy Benes is to start for the Cards, opposite Mets veteran Rick Reed. The Cardinals already are trying to do something no other NL team ever has done -- lose the first two games of a best-of-seven series at home and come back to win the series. Nobody knows better what St. Louis is up against than Benes. "We've been the underdog since Day 1 in the playoffs," he said Friday, an off-day for the two teams. "We have a lot of respect for them, but at the same time we expect to beat them." The two teams got to Shea fairly early Friday for the earliest scheduled game of the series. Benes strolled slowly, almost methodically, into the aging stadium in Queens about 1:10 p.m. ET, more than three hours before gametime. He stopped briefly for some autographs as others in a small crowd of fans outside the gate politely greeted him and the other Cardinals players. Many of the Mets already were there, loosening up on the field and preparing to take batting practice as booming rap music played over the stadium's speakers. While the Mets were taking their swings on the field, the Cardinals' scheduled starter for Sunday evening's game, Darryl Kile, talked with reporters in a makeshift media area just down from the Mets' clubhouse. Kile, a 20-game winner and generally considered St. Louis' best pitcher, is scheduled to pitch Sunday on only three days rest. "If you look through the course of the season, there are days when you have good stuff and days where your stuff is not so good," he said, shrugging off the possible effects of only three days off. "My job is to go out there and win with whatever hand I've been dealt ..." With a series like this, things could be drastically different by Sunday. A win by the Cardinals today would force the Mets to win on Sunday to avoid having to go back to St. Louis for Game 6 and, possibly, Game 7. But that's getting a bit ahead. First, the Cardinals face the must-have, in a park known for its rowdy fans and the success that the Mets have had here. "We've overcome it before," La Russa said. "We can tune out the hostile fans. You've got to win both places." It starts for the Cardinals right here, right now.
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