ST. LOUIS -- Tony La Russa's heart told him he ought to put Scott Rolen on his postseason roster. But no matter how noble his motives were, he has taken an enormous gamble.

	Rolen

Rolen has confided to friends he might not be able to play until Game 5 of this series, contradicting published reports that he could be ready to play in Game 3 on Saturday. Which means the Cardinals -- who are carrying 12 pitchers -- will have to play the first four games of the NLCS with the shortest bench of any team still alive.

The versatility of Miguel Cairo, Eli Marrero and Albert Pujols make that a little easier to deal with, but it was obvious in Game 1 that La Russa had to manage with an undersized bench.

A manager with six bats -- instead of four (not including Rolen) -- on his bench would have pinch-hit for a struggling Matt Morris in the fourth inning, with two outs and a runner on first base. But La Russa let Morris hit, then found himself hooking his starter two batters into the top of the fifth.

Of course, if Cairo can keep hitting .825, no one in St. Louis will care if Rolen ever gets back in there at third base. But La Russa concedes that though Rolen has only been a Cardinal for two months, he was "part of how our club became special." So getting him back in there makes them whole again, rebalances their lineup and upgrades them defensively.

But how certain is it that Rolen will be ready to play in four days? He hasn't taken a swing in over a week. He played a little catch Wednesday but still can't field certain types of groundballs, come up and throw.

So think how tough a call was it to leave him on the roster -- with so little assurance he'll be back by the weekend and such a big downside to playing games this significant with just three extra men (not counting his backup catcher)?

La Russa concedes that. But he also says, "We all would have had a bigger regret if, sometime this weekend, Scott Rolen is ready to go and he's off the (roster). We didn't think it would be worth the risk."

And Rolen understands he can't throw himself back into these games just to say he did.

"There's a fine line," he said, "between being on the field and contributing. Just to hurry and get on the field is one thing. But if you're going to bring the ballclub down and not help the team, I don't think that's worth it."

Rolen sprained his left shoulder in a collision with pinch-runner Alex Cintron last week in Game 2 of the Cardinals' sweep of Arizona in the Division Series.

"Obviously, we wouldn't have done it if we didn't feel there was a chance he'd be available," general manager Walt Jocketty said. "The last couple of days have been a dramatic improvement

"He may wake up this weekend and be able to play."

Cardinals trainer Barry Weinberg said Rolen now is able to handle routine chores such as washing his own hair, but there was no target date for him to resume baseball activities like swinging a bat.

"Two days ago he was awful, yesterday he was bad and today he's almost bad,'' Weinberg said.

Could this be a decision that haunts the Cardinals all winter? Or will Rolen make it back and be the difference between going to the World Series or going fishing? Stay tuned. Those are two questions no one will be able to answer until one of these teams starts spraying champagne.