Minutes after fireworks exploded above Busch Stadium, a light rain replaced the shower of red, white and blue confetti that dusted the delirious fans.
St. Louis Cardinals utility man Skip Schumaker interpreted it as a message from the baseball gods to a team of destiny.
"We had so many things happen this season," said Schumaker, after the Cardinals polished off the Texas Rangers 6-2 in a World Series Game 7 that was mundane compared to previous games of the series. (MORE>>>)
The St. Louis Cardinals host the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series tonight. It's the first Game 7 played since 2002, when the Anaheim Angels beat Barry Bonds' San Francisco Giants.
The Series has gone seven games 17 times since 1962, with the visiting team winning the decisive game on seven occasions. But what's more telling -- the home team has won the last eight Game 7's. (MORE>>>)
Twice down to their last strike, the St. Louis Cardinals kept rallying to win one of baseball's greatest thrillers.
David Freese completed a startling night of comebacks with a home run leading off the bottom of the 11th inning to beat Texas 10-9 on Thursday, and suddenly fans all over got something they have waited a long time to see: Game 7 in the World Series.
"You had to be here to believe it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. (MORE>>>)
As Elvis Andrus says, when you're not hitting, you have to do other things.
Such as be aggressive running the bases. Such as play great defense. Such as pitch like crazy.
The Rangers did enough of those other things to steal a 2-1 victory in Game 2 of the World Series Thursday night. Andrus made perhaps the play of the postseason with a diving stop and throw from his glove that saved a run, and starter Colby Lewis gave the Rangers their first quality start of the postseason, shutting down the Cardinals for 6 2/3 innings. (MORE>>>)
After 20 years in the majors and 900 games on the mound, Arthur Rhodes finally got his first chance to pitch in the World Series.
He did his job, too. Brought in to face left-handed slugger Josh Hamilton, Rhodes retired last year's AL MVP on a lazy fly to center for the final out of the eighth inning, keeping the Cardinals ahead by a run. (MORE>>>)
The Texas Rangers
pitchers started six games in the ALCS and managed to go six innings
just one time. They allowed 36 hits, 21 runs and nine home runs in 28.2
innings while posting a 6.59 ERA. They didn't win a game.
But baseball games aren't won by starting pitchers. They're won by teams.
The Rangers had the better lineup, the better depth, the better defense, the better bullpen.
And they had Nelson Cruz.
(MORE>>>)
A few years ago, Max Scherzer was pitching in the Dallas/Fort Worth area while his professional career was on hold.
On Saturday, the young Detroit right-hander will be back in the same neighborhood, pitching to keep the resolution of the American League Championship Series on hold.
Justin Verlander and Co. sent the ALCS back to Texas, and now it will be up to Scherzer to send it to a Game 7 when he duels left-hander Derek Holland in Rangers Ballpark. The FOX broadcast of Game 6 begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, with first pitch scheduled for 8:05. (MORE>>>)
Everyone is going to be talking about Detroit's big inning on Thursday and the fortuitous bounce that probably saved their season for at least another day.
But
it is what happened in the top half of that inning that really allowed
the Tigers to head back to Arlington for a Game 6 and, of course, they
have their future American League Cy Young Award winning right-hander Justin Verlander to thank for it.
(MORE...)
The Texas tag team of Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli was too much for the Detroit Tigers.
Cruz made a rocket throw to keep the score tied, then hit a crushing three-run home run in the 11th inning off Jose Valverde that helped send the Rangers over the Tigers 7-3 Wednesday night for a 3-1 lead in the AL Championship Series. Napoli had put Texas ahead with an RBI single earlier in the 11th. (MORE>>>)
Postseason baseball has been in session for more than a century, yet not before Monday had a player ended a game with a walk-off grand slam. That came courtesy of the Rangers' Nelson Cruz, who hit an 11th inning slam to win Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.
Cruz's
moonshot came off a slider that barely slid from the Tigers' Ryan Perry
and which the slugger dutifully deposited in the leftfield bleachers.
It was the signature blast in a homer-happy playoffs, though it's hardly
the only historically significant longball this October. (MORE>>>)
On the day the Tigers officially shelved Magglio Ordonez for the rest of the postseason, they replaced him by welcoming back Delmon Young.
Not only is Young back on the roster for the American League Championship Series after being left off two days ago with a strained left oblique, but he was in the lineup for Game 2, batting third and starting in left field.
Young suffered the injury on a swing in Game 5 of the AL Division Series win over the Yankees on Thursday night. He was going to be a gameday decision for the series opener, but the injury worsened while he was sitting around Friday afternoon. (MORE...)