Carlos Beltran

Nights like this were the reason the New York Mets reached deeply into their pockets over the last few winters and brought free-agent talents like Tom Glavine, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner to town. Nights like this, with bright lights, high stakes and roaring fans. Glavine, Beltran and Wagner delivered impressive performances as the Mets opened the National League Championship Series with a 2-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 56,311 last night at Shea Stadium.

Carlos Beltran wore a black Giants pullover, a black and orange Giants hat, and a wide smile as he sat in an interview room Thursday at Citizens Bank Park. Behind him, Phillies logos were pasted to a wall. In front of him was a new opportunity, one for which he would happily waive his no-trade clause. "Of course, I said yes," Beltran said, "after what this organization did last year, their pitching, they're in first place, so it was an easy decision for me to make. " The Phillies were interested in Beltran, but not aggressive suitors when the New York Mets required a steep price.

2006 FINISH: 97-65, First place, 12 games ahead HELLO: OF Moises Alou, LHP Scott Schoeneweis, RHP Jon Adkins, RHP Ambiorix Burgos, IF Damion Easley, IF-OF David Newhan, RHP Jorge Sosa, LHP Jason Vargas, RHP Chan Ho Park, RHP Aaron Sele GOODBYE: OF Cliff Floyd, RHP Steve Trachsel, RHP Victor Zambrano, RHP Roberto Hernandez, RHP Heath Bell, RHP Chad Bradford, LHP Darren Oliver, LHP Royce Ring, IF Chris Woodward LINEUP Jose Reyes, ss...

J.C. Romero pitched his first two innings of the spring yesterday. Now he will head off and join arms with a number of New York Mets on Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. "I'm going to go have some fun and put this all behind me for a minute or two," Romero said. "When I come back, spring training will be a lot shorter. " Romero is still bitter that he must serve a 50-game suspension at the start of the regular season because he tested positive for a banned substance last summer.

A month's work of trades and free-agent negotiations were finally completed yesterday, when Randy Johnson, Carlos Beltran, Shawn Green, Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez and Juan Gon-zalez found new homes. Dioner Navarro, a 20-year-old catcher with seven major league at-bats, even got traded twice. There was a news conference doubleheader in New York. In the morning at Shea Stadium, the Mets announced their $119 million, 7-year contract with centerfielder Carlos Beltran. They already have added three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez and might try to sign slugger Carlos Delgado.

Mark Teixeira could be the Atlanta Braves' new cleanup hitter as early as tonight. Meanwhile, the NL East-leading Mets filled a big hole at second base, acquiring three-time All-Star Luis Castillo from Minnesota for a pair of prospects. The Braves reached an agreement yesterday to send rookie catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and three minor leaguers to Texas for the powerful, switch-hitting Teixeira. The official announcement of the deal is expected to come today. The negotiations were confirmed by people familiar with the deal who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because it wasn't finalized.

Phillies closer Billy Wagner said the game-tying home run he served up in the ninth inning Thursday had nothing to do with his being tired from pitching earlier in the day. "I felt better in the second game than I did the first," he said. With the Phils holding a 4-3 lead in the nightcap of the day-night doubleheader, Wagner allowed a solo homer to Detroit's Brandon Inge with one out in the ninth. "I felt fine," said Wagner, who was on the disabled list from May 8 to June 8 with a strained left groin.

AROUNDTHEBASES   First Base Perhaps the most interesting development this summer is teams' willingness to float some of their cheap, young, and controllable talent on the trade market. The Rays are doing it with James Shields , Colorado with Ubaldo Jimenez , and Houston with Hunter Pence . They may not intend to trade them, but shouldn't these franchises take better care of their best talent?   Second Base Something doesn't seem right about this: Japan won the first two World Baseball Classics and is now threatening a boycott of the 2013 event.

HIS TEAM HASN'T taken any good swings lately, so Mets owner Fred Wilpon decided to take some of his own. Wilpon lashed out at several Mets players in a interview with the New Yorker that mainly focused on his getting snared in his friend Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, Wilpon, speaking about Jose Reyes, said: "He thinks he's going to get Carl Crawford money . . . He's had everything wrong with him . . . He won't get it. " The shortstop...

The New York Mets played themselves back into their city's Yankee-dominated baseball consciousness in 2006. They had the best record in the National League and got back to the postseason for the first time since 2000. But the lasting memory of 2006 isn't all the excitement that was produced in Shea Stadium. It's the disappointment that filled the old ballpark on the night of Oct. 19. The underdog St. Louis Cardinals rallied to beat the Mets, 3-1, in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

NEW YORK - It's been 5 years, and only two players remain. One is righthander Mike Pelfrey. He sits by his Citi Field locker after the Mets' game on Wednesday, scanning a clubhouse of an organization that has overhauled its roster and has experienced a dramatic change in its reputation around baseball. The next series Pelfrey and the Mets will play is against the Phillies, beginning Friday at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets will enter the series with a superior record, which might be more a result of sample size than expected performance.

JIMMY ROLLINS spoke about gut feelings a few times yesterday, so here's one from the base of my bowels: Rollins will be a Phillie next year, and the year after that, and the year after that and the year after that. He will be a Phillie until just before his 37th birthday, at which time the club could choose to bring him back for a fifth year or buy him out for a fraction of what he would earn. How do I arrive at this? Told you, my gut. There's a lot going on down there. No, really, let's take a look at his options, the team's options, and where both parties are going forward.

COME, CHILDREN, and gather round. Log off your Twitter and put down your iPad and lend us what's left of your attention span. We have a story to tell about this sport you now love, a story that is as amazing as it also is true. That team you saw on the field last night? The one dressed in black caps and gray pants? The one that played like it was passing through on its way home from Williamsport? Yes, that's the one. You call them the Mets, and technically you are correct.

As the non-waiver deadline passed at 4 p.m. Sunday, several contenders made trades, with the Atlanta Braves trying to stay in the NL East race by picking up centerfielder Michael Bourn from salary-dumping Houston. Boston added a starting pitcher and St. Louis and Pittsburgh picked up hitters. Bourn, who is hitting .303 and leads the majors with 39 stolen bases, is expected to give the Braves their first true leadoff hitter since Rafael Furcal left after the 2005 season.

FOR A TEAM that appeared "drained" to manager Terry Collins, the New York Mets look surprisingly spry. Lucas Duda and Jason Bay each drove in three runs with bases-loaded doubles and the visiting Mets held off the reeling Reds for a 10-9 victory yesterday that gave New York its first-ever four-game sweep in Cincinnati - the last two after slugger Carlos Beltran was traded to San Francisco. "The last two games speaks volumes about these guys," said Collins, who watched his team weather weeks of speculation about Beltran.

Rarely has Placido Polanco been so pleased after going 0 for 2. Following a rehab assignment Thursday with triple-A Lehigh Valley, Polanco said he felt no numbness in his legs for the first time in about a month and a half. "Maybe close to two months," the Phillies third baseman said. "It's a big relief. I'm so happy. I feel like I can breathe again. " Polanco hasn't played since July 4 because of lower-back inflammation caused by a bulging disk. He is eligible to be activated from the disabled list at any time.

The San Francisco Giants were declared the National League team to beat in this space during the offseason, even after the Phillies reacquired Cliff Lee. Nearly two-thirds of the way through the season, there is no reason to believe otherwise. Sure, the Phillies have a better record, but the pitching is a push, and the addition of Carlos Beltran from the New York Mets gave San Francisco the sort of offensive shove that raises the confidence of a contending team. A baseball source said that Phillies president David Montgomery would never have allowed general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. to trade away a top prospect for a rental player like the Giants did when they parted with minor-league pitcher Zach Wheeler to get Beltran from the Mets Tuesday.

Carlos Beltran wore a black Giants pullover, a black and orange Giants hat, and a wide smile as he sat in an interview room Thursday at Citizens Bank Park. Behind him, Phillies logos were pasted to a wall. In front of him was a new opportunity, one for which he would happily waive his no-trade clause. "Of course, I said yes," Beltran said, "after what this organization did last year, their pitching, they're in first place, so it was an easy decision for me to make. " The Phillies were interested in Beltran, but not aggressive suitors when the New York Mets required a steep price.

NOBODY IN the Phillies organization knows Carlos Beltran's ability to impact a postseason race better than Brad Lidge. On June 24, 2004, Lidge was in the Astros clubhouse when news broke that the team had acquired sweet-swinging switch-hitter Carlos Beltran to bat in the middle of their lineup and patrol centerfield. Houston was in fourth place in the National League Central, trailing first-place St. Louis by five games and the wild card-leading Cubs and Reds by two. After Beltran arrived, the Astros went on a tear, putting together a 54-36 record down the stretch.

ONCE AGAIN, here we are just days before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline, that date on the calendar when Phillies fans glance at the potentially available talent on other teams, rub their hands together greedily and say, "OK, who is Ruben going to bring in this year?" Go back over the acquisitions that Ruben Amaro Jr. has engineered since he became general manager in November 2008, and it is easy to see why the fans are on alert. At the trading deadline in 2009, he took Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee off the Indians.