Bottom of the ninth, Cardinals trailing by one run, the National League Championship Series slipping away by the minute to the New York Mets.

Wouldn't you like to see Mark McGwire do the one thing he's capable of doing these days with his sore knee -- amble to the plate and take a whack as a pinch-hitter?

As the ninth inning blew out like a candle in the wind and the Cardinals dropped a 6-5 nailbiter to dig themselves a 2-0 hole in this series, McGwire had already been used.

Armando Benitez, Jay Payton and Mike Bordick celebrate the Mets' 6-5 win over St. Louis.(AP)

In the bottom of the eighth, with two out, man on second, first base open, in a situation where all 52,250 cramming Busch Stadium and a dwindling television audience at home knew damn well that Big Mac was going to be intentionally walked.

You come out firing in October determined to either win or to go down in a blaze of glory.

The Cardinals, looking more and more like dead birds walking in this series, went down with a very muffled chirp.

This is what it's come down to for McGwire and the Cardinals: As J.D. Drew was racing down the line after cracking a two-out RBI double to knot Game 2 at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was screaming at him from the dugout to stop at first base.

That way, when McGwire stepped in to pinch hit for closer Dave Veres, the Mets wouldn't walk him.

"You leave Veres in there, you're conceding that (Drew) has no chance to score,'' La Russa said quietly. "I didn't think it was worth giving up that out.

"So it came down to (Craig) Paquette with a chance to put us ahead, and it's a shame, but (catcher Rick) Wilkins was the only other choice. I couldn't use Wilkins.''

No, not with Carlos Hernandez behind the plate with two herniated disks in his back, Eli Marrero already on ice and the game threatening to go extra innings.

By the time the Cardinals had their chance to win in the bottom of the eighth, McGwire and Wilkins were the only two position players left.

So La Russa could have either picked one of his pitchers, such as Darryl Kile, to pinch hit and prayed for a miracle, or he could have done as he did: Send McGwire to the plate, have him take his walk and put the game in Paquette's hands.

Mets reliever Turk Wendell fanned Paquette, and then New York took advantage of two St. Louis errors in the ninth -- courtesy of first baseman Will Clark and center fielder Jim Edmonds -- to push across the winning run.

In the bottom of the ninth, Edmonds drew a two-out walk but, with McGwire having already been used, Hernandez swung and missed at strike three.

Ballgame.

"With a base open, you don't want Mark McGwire to beat you,'' Mets catcher Mike Piazza said.

Asked if he was expecting McGwire to be held off until the ninth, Piazza replied: "I don't know, man. My brain is so fried I can't even think.''

The wheels in this one were grinding for so long -- at 3 hours and 59 minutes, it was the longest nine-inning game in NLCS history -- that they literally ground to a halt for the Cardinals. They equaled an NLCS record by using 20 players while attempting to come back from Rick Ankiel's second consecutive miserable start that they had to burn McGwire at the wrong time.

Asked if he would have made any of those moves differently, La Russa paused.

"That's a fair question,'' he said. "This is a game that you keep the card tonight and you replay it. Usually, if there's a time where I'm kicking myself, I recognize it at the time and I'm kicking myself already.

"Right now, without looking at it again, I'm not sure that I would have done something different. Maybe if you ask me tomorrow, I might give you a different answer once I replayed it. But right now, there was no time during the game I was upset that we didn't get the guy home or didn't get the out.''

This game was La Russa at his puppeteer best. Facing a tough left-handed starter for a second consecutive night, he made two lineup changes that each raised eyebrows.

First, he inserted third baseman Fernando Tatis -- who didn't even play in the first round and hadn't had a hit in 15 days, since Sept. 27 -- into the cleanup spot.

And, he installed right-handed Shawon Dunston in right field -- despite Dunston's 1-for-10 lifetime average against Mets starter Al Leiter.

Thing is, both moves worked. Dunston doubled in the second and scored the Cardinals' first run, and Tatis' RBI double in the fifth tied the game at 3-3.

There was, however, one thing La Russa wishes he had done differently. He wishes he could have saved Rick Ankiel from his second consecutive October pie-in-the-face.

For a second consecutive start, the kid was unbelievably wild. He uncorked two first-inning wild pitches, walked three of the six batters he faced and was removed after going 1-and-0 on a seventh.

After throwing five wild pitches in one inning during his last outing, he wasn't much better this time. Four of his first 14 pitches -- and five of his first 20 -- sailed either over or past catcher Eli Marrero to the backstop.

"The manager's responsibility is to put guys in the right position,'' La Russa said. "I blame myself. I don't blame Rick Ankiel. He's too special.''

In the end, there simply wasn't anything else the Cardinals could have done. They played the cards they had and came up empty. It was quite a sight to watch McGwire take his thunder to the plate knowing the Mets simply were going to send him directly to first.

"It wasn't a helpless feeling at all,'' McGwire said. "If anybody knows the game of baseball, you take what's given to you. I've been saying that for 14 years. You take what's given to you.''

The Mets gave McGwire four straight balls.

Then, with the game in his hands, Paquette gave the Cardinals an inning-ending strikeout.

It was after midnight when a library-quiet group of Cardinals finally finished packing their bags, loading their truck and bussed to the airport.

Read into that all the symbolism you want.