St. Louis Cardinals: World Series Champions
They did it! the most improbable ending to one of the most amazing comebacks in baseball history has given the St. Louis Cardinals a World Series Championship.
Chris Carpenter, the ace pitcher for a club that was 10 1/2 games out of the National League Wildcard lead in late August, gave up only two runs in six innings in Game 7 of the World Series as the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 6-2.
It was the third World Series championship for Manager Tony LaRussa, who has won two titles in the National League with St. Louis, and one in the American League with Oakland. "This is what you dream about," LaRussa said. there isn’t anybody on this team, too, that when you’re a young kid you don’t think about winning the World Series, and it’s always in Game 7. truly a dream come true. It’s hard to imagine it actually happened."
St. Louis third baseman and hometown hero David Freese, who ended one the biggest games in Cardinals history with a walkoff home run in Game 6, was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. he batted .348 with three doubles, a triple, a home run, seven RBI and four runs scored during the Fall Classic.
KTTS News asked Freese about going from being injured while being on a rehab assignment with the Springfield Cardinals last season, to being on top of the world now. "I think you’ve got to kind of take a step back and understand all the work you’ve put into it, and then you realize how many people are the reason why you’re here, starting with my folks" Freese said. "You know, I quit out of high school, and they were the only two people that supported that decision. If I listened to everybody else, I wouldn’t be here right now."
Freese was a key player in the finale. After Texas jumped out to a 2-0 1st inning lead on back to back RBI doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, it was Freese’s two run double to left center that allowed the Cardinals to tie the game 2-2 before the second inning ever started.
Former Springfield Cardinal Allen Craig homered in the 3rd inning, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead, and the Redbirds never looked back.
The Cardinals increased the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the 5th without the benefit of a hit. they used three walks and two hit batters to begin to pull away from the Rangers.
Yadier Molina had an RBI single in the 7th to give the Cardinals a four run cushion, 6-2, and that’s all they needed. Arthur Rhodes, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte shut down Texas’ mighty offense.
Matt Harrison, who gave up three runs on five hits in four innings for the Rangers, took the loss.
The contest marked what may have been the last game for slugger Albert Pujols in a Cardinal uniform. Pujols, who’s eligible to become a free agent at any time, was asked by outfielder Lance Berkman to "come back. Let’s do this again." And what did Pujols tell him? "just the same thing that I’m going to tell you," Pujols said. "I was enjoying the moment. Look, I’m going to be prayerful about it. Whatever decision I make hopefully is the best decision I make for my family and the fans and everybody."
On this night, at least, Pujols is a proud Cardinal who celebrated his second World Series title. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
