The problem with wrapping up your division in July and sweeping a first-round series from a banged-up wild-card team is, you don?t know how you?re going to respond to adversity. And after Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, it?s Adversity 1, New York Mets 0. Still looking shell-shocked after their collapse in Game 2 to the Cardinals, the Mets sleepwalked their way through a Game 3 loss that included, among other indignities, being shut out on three hits, and allowing a home run by the opposing pitcher, Jeff Suppan. Now, for the first time in 2006, the Mets will play a baseball game that they have to win. If they fall behind 3-1, they?ll be facing the prospect of having to beat the suddenly-hot Jeff Weaver and 2005 Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter just to get to Game 7. And if you think John Maine was a shaky choice for Game 2, and Steve Trachsel an unreliable choice for Game 3, then what to call the Mets Game 4 starter, Oliver Perez (3-13, 6.55)? This may be a game that the Mets will have to outslug the Cardinals to win. But so far, the Mets bats have only come alive in Game 2 ? a game that will haunt the Mets should they fail to advance to the World Series. The Mets cuffed Carpenter around all night. They built leads of 3-0, 4-2, and 6-4. They survived four unsteady innings by Maine, turned the game over to their bullpen and seemingly had the game under control in the 7th inning. And the best bullpen in baseball couldn?t hold the lead. Scott Spezio?s two-run triple, on an 0-2 fastball by Guillermo Mota, a ball that popped out of the glove of a sprinting Shawn Green, turned the series around. Up until that hit, the Mets had beaten back all challenges this post-season, had played like the dominant team that terrorized the National League all season. The Mets? pitching, however, scares nobody. And when the Cardinals jumped on Billy Wagner for three runs in the ninth inning, the Mets? last line of defense had crumbled. What are they left with? The shortcomings left by the injuries to Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez have finally caught up to them. Thanks to Steve Trachsel?s dreadful Game 3 performance, the Mets? best long-relief specialist, Darren Oliver, is unavailable till Game 6, after pitching six scoreless innings. On paper, it looks like the Mets don?t have the arms to stay alive. Pitching wins in the playoffs?just ask the Yankees. What?s left for the Mets is their heart, their character. How resilient will they be, faced with a must-win situation and a pitcher who they?re praying can keep them in the game for at least four innings? The Mets have shown that they?re capable of winning games every which way?with the long ball, with small ball, with their defense. Now, it appears they?re going to have to summon the kind of intangibles that aren?t always measured in box scores and pitch counts. For inspiration, they can look back at the 1986 Mets, who also blazed to a division title without being tested all season. In the NLCS, they lost Game 1 to the Houston Astros, and staged a dramatic 9th inning rally to tie ? and eventually win ? the thrilling 16-inning Game 6 that gave them the pennant. And everyone remembers what the Mets did to the Red Sox with their backs against the wall. Twenty years later, the Mets get another chance to show whether they have championship character. And whether they can pull even with adversity.