| 2011 World Series Preview |
| By Sally Haase October 18, 2011 Both teams wrapped up their respective League Championship series in the sixth game and with blowout victories. Now the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals will meet in the World Series; game one will be Wednesday, October 19 in St. Louis. The reason for the earlier than normal start date is to avoid playing any World Series games in November. The Cardinals won the National League wild card on the final day of the season while the Rangers led the American League West pretty much the entire season, holding off the charge of the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim to win the division by ten games. Both had a hard road to the Series with the Cardinals have to take down the Philadelphia Phillies in round one and then the division rival Milwaukee Brewers in round two. The Rangers had to beat the red hot Tampa Bay Rays to get to round two and then took down the Detroit Tigers to return to the Series. This may be a series of offense since both teams pitching staffs have struggled to keep runs off the board, but luckily for the Rangers and Cardinals, they have been able to score more runs than the other team. Neither team has a starting pitcher that has dominated their game this season but both have solid staffs with a good mix of veterans and young talent. And with the Nolan Ryan philosophy in Texas, the Rangers pitchers know how to grind out games and finish what they start. One veteran on the Cardinals, Arthur Rhodes will receive a ring no matter what the outcome of the series will be, Rhodes was with the Rangers at the beginning of the season until August when he was released and later signed by the Cardinals. Here are the pitching match-ups for the first four games of the season. C J Wilson (Tex) vs. Chris Carpenter (STL) Colby Lewis (Tex) vs. Jaime Garcia (STL) Edwin Jackson (STL) vs. Derek Holland (Tex) Kyle Lohse (STL) vs. Matt Harrison (Tex) Baring any injury to the pitchers the rotation will start over with Wilson and Carpenter for game five if necessary. Hopefully it will be necessary because there is nothing worse than a four game sweep in the World Series. Fun for the fans of the team sweeping sure, but not as much fun for general baseball fans. |
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