Chris Carpenter allowed two runs in six innings on three days rest, and game six hero David Freese drove in a pair while reaching base three times as the St Louis Cardinals became the champions of baseball, defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 to win the World Series four games to three.
Game six getting rained out pushed back everyone a day, and enabled Tony La Russa to use his ace on three days rest. Carpenter’s verified La Russa’s faith in him, striking out five and walking two, while allowing six hits in his six innings of work. Carpenter got off to a rough start, allowing a pair of runs in the first inning on three hits by the Rangers, including doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young. Texas would have just three hits over the rest of the game, inlcuding only one for extra bases. After Carpenter exited, La Russa’s army of relievers shut down the Rangers for three innings, not allowing a baserunner.
After Texas scored their two runs in the first, the Cardinals didn’t hesitate to answer. Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman walked, both with two outs, to bring up Freese, who doubled them both in to tie the game at two. With Matt Holliday out of the lineup with a finger injury, his replacement in left field delivered in the third. Allen Craig homered to right field to give St Louis a 3-2 lead that they wouldn’t end up relinquishing.
The Cardinals would add more insurance in the fifth. Scott Feldman relieved Matt Harrison to start the inning, and it was a disaster. The team didn’t get a ball out of the infield, but scored two runs, thanks in part to three walks and two hit batters. St Louis added a sixth run in the seventh on an RBI single by Yadier Molina.
As for the Rangers, they lose their second World Series in a row. The offense vanished in game seven, and that cost them. Their bullpen that had looked so good throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs turned into a house of horrors.
The St Louis Cardinals defeated the teams with three of the four best records in these playoffs. They overcame a 10.5 game deficit in the wild card race in late-August. You can’t argue that they backdoored their way to a title and didn’t earn it.
