New York ? It took the St. Louis Cardinals a long, long time to wrap up the NL Central, clinching it on the final day after a prolonged slump.

They missed their first chance at taking out the San Diego Padres in the first round of the postseason, too.

So whiffing on an opportunity to finish off the New York Mets and advance to the World Series despite having their ace on the mound was far from devastating from the up-and-down Cardinals. Just another bump in what’s been a real bumpy road.

“We’re not frustrated at all,” pitcher Chris Carpenter said. “We’ve got another one tomorrow. Get in on the last day of the year, maybe get into the World Series on the last day of the NLCS.”

Carpenter kept it close once again without his best stuff. The Cardinals’ hitters, however, looked as though they were facing a Cy Young winner instead of a rookie.

Unable to deliver in the clutch until it was too late, the Cardinals missed a chance to salt away the NL championship series, losing to the New York Mets, 4-2, Wednesday night.

“We’re going to the World Series or we’re going home,” second baseman Ronnie Belliard said. “Nobody said it was going to be easy.

“Hey, we’ve got a Game 7, and we’re going to have fun with it, and trust me, it’s going to be a different game.”

St. Louis heads into Game 7 tonight with another favorable pitching matchup: 12-game winner Jeff Suppan against Oliver Perez.

Suppan won two clinching games in the 2004 postseason, besting the Astros’ Roger Clemens in Game 7 of the NLCS.

“He’s been big all year, he’s been big in past postseasons,” Carpenter said. “It’s nice to have him go out there and compete against this club in Game 7.”

Shut down by John Maine and the Mets’ bullpen for eight innings, pinch-hitter So Taguchi’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth off Billy Wagner was the Cardinals’ lone hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Taguchi is 4-for-4 in the postseason and hit a go-ahead pinch homer off Wagner in Game 2. Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen each came up empty in two key at-bats. Cleanup hitter Juan Encarnacion failed, too.

“We had many chances, but that’s part of the game,” Encarnacion said. “We couldn’t come through. We’ll just get them tomorrow, there’s another game to play.”

Rolen, whose sore left shoulder contributed to a late-season slump that landed him on the bench for the clinching game of the division series, doubled to put runners at second and third in the ninth. But he’s only 5-for-28 in the postseason with two extra-base hits and no RBIs after driving in 95 runs in the regular season.

Albert Pujols, whose homer ignited the offense against Tom Glavine in Game 5, singled twice and drew an intentional walk.

Entering Game 6, Pujols had been 10-for-21 with two homers and four RBIs in the Cardinals’ postseason victories, but 0-for-11 with no RBIs in the losses.

The Cardinals twice left the bases loaded in Game 5, although it didn’t cost them in a 4-2 victory. In a six-inning span ending in the first inning of Game 6, they stranded 12 runners.

St. Louis missed a chance in the first to silence a sellout crowd pumped up by a louder-than-usual sound system. With runners on second and third, Edmonds struck out, and with the bases loaded, Rolen hit a routine fly.