Top

Cardinals World Series

October 17, 2011 by · Comments Off on Cardinals World Series 

Cardinals World SeriesCardinals World Series, He left behind in the race for postseason, the Cardinals decided they had to focus on small goals in September. Now the latter is at your fingertips. Cardinals’ wild ride goes to the World Series.

“It’s a bit surreal that we’re here,” said third baseman David Freese, who won MVP honors in the series. “But this team deserves what we have been rewarded.”

Freese hit a three-run homer in the first inning and manager Tony La Russa went back to his brilliant bullpen for seven innings strong in St. Louis captured the championship 18 with a 12-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday evening.

“For two weeks in August robbery started games left and right and we had to say, hey, look, unless we deal with this better, we’re going to ruin everything we have achieved in terms of respect,” said La Russa. “And he began to gain a little. And literally play every game like it was the last game of our lives.”

A disadvantage of 10 ½ games in the wild-card race on August 25, the Cardinals came in the stretch and took advantage of a monumental collapse by Atlanta to win a playoff spot in the final night of the regular season.

In a twist of fate, it was Philadelphia that helped them get to complete a three-game sweep of the Braves.

Once in the playoffs, Albert Pujols and the Cardinals took a great favorite with the Phillies in the first round, and then sent to the division rival Brewers on their own turf in Game 6 of the League Championship Series .

“I mean, could never have known,” Pujols said.

Freese, often overlooked in a line anchored to All-Stars, he hit .545 with three homers and nine RBIs in the series.

Seeking his second title in six seasons, San Luis opens the World Series at home on Wednesday night with ace Chris Carpenter on the mound against the Texas Rangers AL champion.

It was like a frantic race, it seems logical that a squirrel has become the unofficial mascot of the team.

The squirrel demonstration began in the division series against Philadelphia, when the furry rodent scampered on the plate for Game 4. Another squirrel was in the field before Game 5, when Carpenter blanked the Phillies.

Reliever Octavio Dotel leads to a small stuffed squirrel with him after a Philadelphia fan threw it to him jokingly, a tangible sign that the Cardinals have come.

“I was in my bed thinking, ‘Wow, we’re in this position.” I can not believe personally. I can not believe that we are after the way we played the last month, and how Atlanta played, “said Dotel.” It’s crazy to be where we are now. I do not know how to explain it to you. All I know is that we are here and we are looking forward to keep winning games. ”

Encouraged by an unnamed group of relievers to keep answering the call of La Russa, the Cardinals are back in the World Series for the first time since beating Detroit in 2006.

“We had a lot of adversity, but we found a way to” Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday said.

It was a disappointing end to a brilliant season for Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and the Brewers of Central Division champion, who finished with a franchise-record 96 wins, six games ahead of St. Louis in the division.

Best Baseball home team collapsed in the ALCS, but lose twice at Miller Park in failure full of errors. Fielder was likely the last game with the Brewers, too. He can become a free agent after the season.

“I had to clear his throat once, but it was fine. I love these guys,” said Fielder, a first-round pick in 2002. “I’ve been playing with most of them since I was 18. So this organization has been very important to me.”

Rafael Furcal and Pujols hit solo homers off Chris Narveson and St. Louis a 9-4 lead when the bullpen took over Edwin Jackson in the third inning.

The group of Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte allowed two runs the rest of the way. For the series, St. Louis relievers finished 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in 28 2-3 innings.

The last picture of this championship series was La Russa in the bullpen phone.

“He’s a genius, right?” Motte said, the fifth this year for the Cardinals.

St. Louis built a 11-5 lead before the biggest shock came when Pujols was shaken after the marking of Braun in the fifth inning. The three-time MVP fell hard on his right forearm on a close play at first base.

“He shot me. I do not feel very well, but whenever I can walk I’m playing in that game,” Pujols said. “It’s the playoffs. Nothing hurts. Do not think about it. You think of making a play. If you were injured, hey, at least he was injured trying to do something hard.”

The Cardinals took control of the series starting in Game 2 to jump to the wires from the beginning and let the bullpen the way.

La Russa called his bullpen 28 times in the NLCS and start Jackson was the shortest postseason rotation, which ended the championship series with an ERA of 7.66. St. Louis became the first team to win a playoff series without starting to reach the sixth inning, according to STATS LLC.

Freese gave his colleagues to accept credit MVP award.

“I wish we could make eight or nine of them and give our bullpen. They are the reason we won this series,” he said.

Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and Jonathan Lucroy all homered for the Brewers, who won a major 57 league home games at Miller Park this season and the playoffs four straight before losing Game 2 of the Cardinals.

More batters the Brewers – Braun, Fielder and Weeks – final 1 for 12 in Game 6. Fielder, the All-Star Game MVP and the reason why St. Louis will start a home on Wednesday, received a standing ovation in his final at-bat in the eighth inning. He failed and gradually returned to the dugout with his head down.

“Obviously, I thought we won the World Series, but that did not happen,” said Fielder. “We had a great year as a team. Unfortunately, not get where they wanted to go. But still some great moments and great memories from there. As I said, this year has been incredible.”

It was the two ugly defensive actions is likely to continue for Milwaukee, which committed four errors in a 7-1 loss in Game 5 and added three more in Game 6.

“You can not leave them with errors and we were wrong too,” said manager Ron Roenicke.

Shaun Marcum title match never gave Milwaukee a chance and was hit by defensive plays that were not ruled errors.

In the first, Jon Jay singled with one out and stole second, where weeks could not keep a low shot Lucroy. Marcum thought was strike three in Pujols, who ended up walking.

Lance Berkman’s second hit in 18 at-bats against Marcum to drive in the first race, and center fielder Nyjer Morgan made a bad throw to third Berkman advised to stop to get to second.

Marcum saved a run for the dribbler Holliday grabbing and flipping out of his glove to Lucroy Pujols for the plate, but Freese homered on the next pitch to make it 4-0 and extend their streak of postseason hitting hit to 10 games.

“We believe, Freese said.” I think that’s what you have to do in this game. We have a group of kids with talent, desire, and just a lot of heart. “

Bottom