RetroSimba

(Updated Dec. 7, 2024)

Randy Flores was the winning pitcher in a Cardinals pennant clincher.

On Oct. 19, 2006, Flores pitched a flawless eighth inning, setting the stage for Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright to lift the Cardinals to a 3-1 win in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series versus the Mets at New York.

Nine years later, Flores, who earned an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s degree in administration from the University of Southern California, played another prominent role for the Cardinals when he was chosen by general manager John Mozeliak to be scouting director, starting the job on Sept. 1, 2015.

Trusted by Tony

The winner-take-all game to determine the 2006 National League championship was as intense as a New York subway ride at rush hour. In the eighth inning, with the score tied at 1-1 and most of the 56,357 spectators howling for the Mets to take the lead, Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan walked leadoff batter Carlos Beltran.

Next up was Carlos Delgado, a left-handed slugger who’d been walked three times in the game by Suppan.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa replaced Suppan with Flores, a left-hander.

Delgado had hit three home runs against the Cardinals in the series.

Flores struck him out on a slider in the dirt.

Rough vs. righties

Another power hitter, David Wright, was up next. A right-handed batter, Wright had driven in the Mets’ run in the first with one of their two hits in the game against Suppan.

The matchup with Flores favored Wright. Right-handed batters hit .329 versus Flores during the season.

La Russa could have brought in a right-hander to face Wright, but he didn’t because Shawn Green, a left-handed batter, was on deck. Rookie Tyler Johnson was the lone remaining left-hander in the bullpen.

Preferring to stick with his veteran, La Russa gambled and let Flores face Wright.

Flores struck him out on a slider.

Complete the job

Beltran, who had 18 stolen bases during the season and one during the series, hadn’t budged off first base.

Like Delgado and Wright, Green had the proven ability to drive in Beltran with an extra-base hit. Acquired by the Mets from the Diamondbacks in August, Green had produced 31 doubles and 15 home runs during the season.

Flores got Green to ground out to first baseman Albert Pujols, ending the inning and emboldening the Cardinals with his shutdown performance.

In the ninth, Yadier Molina slammed a two-run home run off reliever Aaron Heilman _ “I was running, but I couldn’t feel my feet,” Molina told Sports Illustrated of his trek around the bases _ that gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead and positioned Flores for the win.

Facing Adam Wainwright in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs before the rookie struck out Beltran on three pitches, the final one a jaw-dropping curve. Boxscore and Video at about 30-second mark

(Recalling that curve to Beltran, Wainwright said in an interview with the 2016 Cardinals Yearbook, “Before making that pitch, I said to myself that I was going to throw a backdoor breaking ball strike that painted the outside corner … When (the umpire) called it strike three, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh! It worked.’ Exactly what I wanted to happen had happened, and it was sheer elation and surprise.”)

Said Flores to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about earning the win: “The best moment possible, winning Game 7 of the NLCS _ unless you’re talking about Game 7 of the World Series.”

The win was the personal highlight of an outstanding 2006 postseason for Flores. Overall, he pitched 5.2 scoreless innings against the Padres, Mets and Tigers.

Signed by the Cardinals as a free agent in November 2003 after spending the season in the Rockies minor-league system, Flores played five years (2004-08) with St. Louis and was 9-2 with a 4.35 ERA and three saves in 237 appearances.