| Cardinals Win World Series |
| By Sally Haase October 29, 2011 ST. LOUIS, MO--- The impossible dream has come true for the St. Louis Cardinals, who won game seven and the World Series 6-2. Written off in September, they clawed their way back to claim the wild card on the final day of the season. Facing the favored Philadelphia Phillies in the first round, the Cardinals were expected to be eliminated right away, but the team held on to defeat the Phillies in five games then took down their rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers in six games to earn the World Series berth. The Cardinals had to face another tough opponent in the American League Champion Texas Rangers. Until the bottom of the ninth inning in game six, it looked like the Rangers were in the driver’s seat, all they needed to do was win one of the next two games and all the pitching staff needed to do was get strike three before the Cardinals got a base hit… twice. The first time it was David Freese who tied the game with a two run triple and the second time it was Lance Berkman who kept the game alive with a run scoring single. Both times after tying the game, the Rangers were able to get the next batter out. Freese is probably giving the Rangers pitching staff nightmares right now. What failed the Rangers this series is what have been their strengths all season, the pitching staff was subpar giving up a World Series record 41 walks and the offense, usually potent suddenly went cold, not a good thing in the World Series to lose your pitching and hitting. Freese was named the Series MVP mostly because of his triple and home run in game six to keep his team alive and his two run double to tie the game in the first inning of game seven. Freese was one of three possible options for MVP, Ace Chris Carpenter started three of the seven games for the Cardinals and the Cardinals won two of the three games he started. First baseman Albert Pujols was another option for MVP with his record tying performance in game three, batting 5 for 6 with three home runs. This thrilling World Series capped off a great season of baseball, it was another year of the pitcher with Justin Verlander leading the pack with a dominating season. We saw Derek Jeter get his 3,000th hit on a home run and we saw Jim Thome hit his 599th and 600th home runs in one game then accepted a trade to return to the team he started with- the Cleveland Indians. The Thome trade did not do enough to boost the Indians into the playoffs, but at least their collapse was not as epic as the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox who let go of comfortable leads to lose their playoff spots on the final game of the season. But it worked out great for the Rangers and Cardinals. |
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