suppan               perez
12-7, 4.12        3-13, 6.55

over at tradesports.com, the cardinals are trading at $45.60, the mets at $53.70 . . . . at those odds, cards seem like a pretty good buy, but damned if i'm buying any shares --- i'm the kiss of death in the markets. guaranteed new york win if i'm holding a contract on st louis.

miklasz has the lineups:

ST. LOUIS	NEW YORK
eckstein ss	reyes ss
wilson lf	lo duca c
pujols 1b	beltran cf
encarnacion rf	delgado 1b
edwards cf	wright 3b
rolen 3b	green rf
molina c	valentin 2b
belliard 2b	chavez lf
suppan p	perez p

this is only suppan's fourth career start at shea stadium. his last came on may 19, 2004, his 8th start for st louis -- matched zeroes with steve trachsel (tonight's passed-over met starter) for six innings, departed with a no-decision. the cardinals scored in the 8th and won 1-0. he pitched another good game at shea on may 4, 1998, against a met lineup that prominently featured matt franco, butch huskey, and carlos baerga. supps (pitching for the arizona diamondbacks in their 1st season) went 6 and a third, allowed 1 run on 4 hits, got another no-decision; his team won 4-2 in 11 innings. and his first start there came on friday the 13th -- june 13, 1997 -- during supps' first full season. he gave up 10 baserunners and 2 hr in five innings, but the two dingers were solo shots and he stranded ev'ybody else; picked up a cheap win thanks to 8 runs of support from his bosox teammates.

i'm sure we'd all take our chances with any such like out of jeff this evening. they're a win away from the pennant -- get that win boys, and we'll all be celebrating later tonight.