ST. LOUIS (AP) - Orlando Hernandez followed Tom Glavine’s act. Another 41-year-old guy in the New York Mets’ supposedly shaky rotation shut down the team that broke their hearts in the National League Championship Series.

Hernandez, who missed the 2006 postseason with a calf injury, threw seven innings of five-hit ball and hit a two-run double that matched his career RBI output in a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals last night. He also picked off a runner.

"We saw him twice in spring training, and we had an idea of how he pitches," Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said. "He just executes. You have to give him credit."

The Mets have been impressive in taking the first two games of a season-opening three-game series against the team that eliminated them in a seven-game NLCS last year. And they’ve done it with starting pitching, which was supposed to be their weakness.

"Last year, that’s all they talked about, and we were third in all of baseball. And that’s all they can talk about now," catcher Paul Lo Duca said. "I’ve told everybody our pitching is going to be a lot better than everybody thinks."

The Cardinals have as many outfield errors (two) as runs, looking more like the 83-win team that limped to the postseason than the one that got rolling en route to the franchise’s first World Series title in 24 years.

New York prevailed last night after the Cardinals received their World Series rings. On Sunday night, the Mets won 6-1 behind Glavine after a flag-raising ceremony.

Hernandez (1-0) faced the Cardinals for the first time and tantalized them with an assortment of mostly off-speed pitches. He had no strikeouts but was hurt only by Scott Rolen’s leadoff homer in the seventh. El Duque was helped by three double plays, giving the Mets a two-game total of seven.

Kip Wells’ six-inning stint in his Cardinals debut was marred by shaky defense, including his own costly mistake. The Mets scored unearned runs in the first and fifth before Hernandez, a career .147 hitter with two RBI in 68 at-bats entering the season, tacked on a two-run, bases-loaded double in the sixth.

"For the most part, I liked the way I threw," Wells said.

Aaron Heilman got Albert Pujols on a soft liner with two on for the final out in the eighth, and Billy Wagner finished for the save.

The Cardinals’ ring ceremony was notable for the team’s generosity, with rings presented to Hall of Famers such as Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in addition to a pair of retired players, Larry Walker and Cal Eldred, who called it quits after the 2005 season and served as spring training instructors.

The rings feature the championship trophy on one side, the player’s name accompanied by a scene of Busch Stadium during a fireworks celebration on the opposite side, with the intertwined letters STL in rubies on top along with diamonds studding four bases.

"Gorgeous," La Russa said. "Ownership deserves a ton of credit."

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