The day before the NL championship series started, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty joked about his team's underdog status.

``I don't even know why we're playing,'' Jocketty said. ``According to some people.''

Now, the team that limped to the NL Central title is on the brink of its second World Series appearance in three seasons.

A 4-2 victory over the New York Mets in Game 5 on Tuesday night gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead and put them in ideal position to close out the series.

St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter will start Game 6 Wednesday night at Shea Stadium. A 15-game winner and contender for his second straight Cy Young Award, Carpenter travelled to New York earlier Tuesday to rest up.

Carpenter missed the 2004 playoffs, when St. Louis was swept by the Red Sox with a biceps injury. He'll get his chance to put himself _ and his team _ in the World Series.

Carpenter is hoping for a better performance than in Game 2 of the NLCS, when he struggled to control his curveball and had trouble with plate umpire Jim Joyce's tight strike zone. Carpenter gave up five runs, six hits and four walks in five innings, but St. Louis managed to rally for a 9-6 win that evened the series.

Since finishing 3-9 and backing into the division title on the final day when second-place Houston lost, the Cardinals have played more like the 100-win teams of the previous two seasons.

New Busch Stadium has enjoyed an uninterrupted slate of sellouts in the first season at new Busch Stadium, but seldom has the place been so raucous as revived Jeff Weaver kept his team close with another strong post-season effort.

Weaver, 8-14 with a 5.76 ERA with the Angels and Cardinals in the regular season, is 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA in the post-season.

The press box was shaking and swaying after Ronnie Belliard tied the game 2-2 with an opposite-field RBI single in the fourth, and the tremors returned after Preston Wilson's double put the Cardinals ahead 3-2 in the fifth.

The place was shaking once again after stand-in closer Adam Wainwright, one of three rookies in a bullpen minus Jason Isringhausen, froze Jose Valentin with a breaking ball for a called third strike to end the eighth with the tying runs on second and third.

The crowd didn't wait for the ninth inning to send off a team that finished the regular season 83-78 but has had the look of a contender since the first day of the post-season, many of them standing and waving white rally towels throughout the final three innings.

The Cardinals took a big step toward a World Series matchup of best buddies, Tony La Russa vs. the Tigers' Jim Leyland, by knocking out Tom Glavine with none out in the fifth inning.