Cards and Mets For All The Marbles: NLCS Game 7

Tonight's NLCS Game 7 at Shea Stadium should be an interesting one, at least if you look at the pitching matchups.

Tonight it features Oliver Perez (3-13, 6.55 ERA) vs. Jeff Suppan (12-7, 4.12 ERA).

We know coming into this game that the Mets will and have relied on their hitting and bullpen and certainly not their starting pitching. But Oliver Perez? After all, the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up on this guy and to put the whole season on his arm seems a bit crazy. However, the Mets don't have much choice, since they used Darren Oliver last night.

On the other side of the coin, Suppan, will be making his 8th postseason start in the past three years. Suppan is 2-1 with a 1.80 ERA in four career NL Championship Series starts. He has pitched 25 innings in pursuit of the pennant, getting more strikeouts (18) than hits allowed (14). His regular season numbers: 207 hits and 104 strikeouts.

If we had to make a prediction.....The Mets, it's been 20 years since the days of Gooden, Strawberry, Hernandez, Carter, Knight and crew, you can smell it in the air.