Red Sox rout Cardinals in Game 1 of World Series
Key injury: Beltran saves grand slam, leaves game


Sawx up 1-0, Game 2 Tonight

Cards Turn Tables, Rally Late to Knot World Series

Wacha wins Classic debut as St. Louis capitalizes on Boston errors

BOSTON -- After leaning upon rookie right-hander Michael Wacha to pitch them out of Pittsburgh, past L.A.'s Clayton Kershaw and into the World Series, the Cardinals' offense found a way to return the favor on Thursday night.

This time, they bailed him out.

On a night when Red Sox cleanup hitter David Ortiz marred an otherwise dominant effort from the 22-year-old Wacha with a sixth-inning blast, the Cardinals answered -- albeit with some help from the Red Sox's defense -- with three runs an inning later. That provided the Cards' bullpen with a two-run cushion, one it held with relative ease in order to leave Boston on a high.

With a 4-2 victory in front of 38,436 in Game 2 of the World Series, St. Louis heads home having split the pair of games at Fenway Park. It was a critical win for the Cardinals, who did not want to go back to Busch Stadium without having won at least once behind their top two pitchers.

"You turn the page and you come back the next day and you fight, you try your best and you go out there and expect to win," David Freese said. "Tonight was a big game for us. One-to-one feels good. Being down two games, I'm sure statistically that is a tough feat to come back from."

The numbers confirmed Freese's presumption. Of the last 16 teams to fall behind 2-0 in the Fall Classic, only one (the 1996 Yankees) had come back to claim a championship. It's a feat these Cardinals no longer will have to try to match. Instead, they can savor this: Of the 13 previous times the Cards were 1-1 in a World Series, 11 ended with a title.

"This was a big win today," said reliever and spectator Jason Motte. "It wasn't a must-win [game], but it was pretty close to it."

"Tonight's game is more reflective of how we've played, especially of late," added general manager John Mozeliak. "A key double play. Wacha was outstanding. All these young guys just give you a chance to win, which is outstanding. I just think the key thing for us was to move on, and we did. Now going back to St. Louis 1-1, you feel like you're in a much better spot."

--snip--

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MICHAEL Wacha


Even Up 1-1, heading to St. Louis for 3, next game: Saturday 8:07Pm ET

Best is Yet to Come in this Drama-filled Fall Classic

History, first four games show Series could go distance, with more indelible moments

ST. LOUIS -- Now it gets good.

Not that there's been anything wrong with the first four games of the World Series, with the Red Sox and Cardinals feeling each other out for two games at Fenway Park and playing to a confusing finish here in Game 3. But Boston's 4-2 victory on Sunday night sets the stage for one of those Octobers suitable for a Ken Burns documentary.

After 13 hours and 50 minutes of high-wire baseball over four games in five nights -- in cities where Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Stan Musial and Bob Gibson are high on the list of civic icons, at ballparks that epitomize the old and the new architecturally, with David Ortiz becoming The Unretirable Man and both Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig thriving under physical duress -- we're down to closing acts.

It's two out of three to see whether the Cards win their third World Series in the last eight seasons or the Red Sox throw their third parade in 10 years.

The winner will be the team of this young century -- and if you are confident that you know which team that will be at this point, you are probably also capable of bending silverware with your mind.

After Jarrod Saltalamacchia's unwise throw led to the obstruction call that decided Game 3, St. Louis seemed set to seize control in Game 4. Boston was starting a running-on-fumes Clay Buchholz, yet the Red Sox still got the victory they badly needed, with Koji Uehara's pickoff of pinch-runner Kolten Wong sealing the deal.

The hero, naturally, was Jonny Gomes, who didn't know he was in the starting lineup until he was halfway through his round of batting practice.

Buchholz did his part to keep the game tied when he was in, and Gomes -- who got his chance because Shane Victorino was scratched with back problems -- blasted a three-run homer off Seth Maness, whose forte is getting ground balls. That's how these teams roll.

"Both teams are truly trying to win every single game," Gomes said. "You don't have much room to give a game and just kind of say, 'OK, that wasn't a good game.' It's a heavyweight fight. You have to win as many rounds as you can."

The starting rotations reset for Game 5, with Jon Lester facing Adam Wainwright on Monday night in a rematch of the Red Sox's 8-1 victory in the opener. The competitiveness of the pitchers will be off the charts, and when Cardinals fans head out of Busch Stadium, they'll probably either feel like they've got it in the bag or that all is lost.

Neither will be the truth, and that's good news for drama addicts.

The World Series is tied 2-2, and the likelihood is we're headed to a Game 7 at Fenway Park on Thursday night. There will be a chance of a celebration on Wednesday, sure, but history says we're going the distance, and why not?

Since the Major Leagues went to divisional play in 1969, teams have been tied 2-2 in 17 series. Eleven of the previous 16 have gone to a seventh game, including ones that produced storybook finishes in 1975, '86, '91 (Sunday was the 22nd anniversary of Jack Morris' 1-0 win over the Braves), '97, 2001 and '11.

And here's a twist you might not expect: The team that has won Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead has not had the huge advantage that you'd expect. Surprisingly, the team that has lost the fifth game has bounced back to win Games 6 and 7 as often as the team that won it got the last victory it needed to nail down a championship.

Who has the advantage at this point?

--snip--


Even Up, 2-2, Next Game tonight, Fox, 8:07 PM ET
(Last chance for Red Birds to pick up a Home win before series heads back to Boston!!)

Thanks for the Thread, FP !!

No time to watch the series but then again I have hard feeling against the Sox for knocking out my Rays !!

But, I will be back to read the great articles you posted. Thanks again !!

I can't say that I've really watched all that much myself, sort of been distracted by other things...

But I do try to keep up on it a bit, in my mind it is actually one of the Series in which both the NL & AL truly did send the best team to represent!!

Hope that it goes the distance for the fans of each team, and that the well worn cliche of "may the best team win!" comes to pass to close out this season...

Sox Seek to Fend off Wacha at Fenway, Clinch Title

Up 3-2, Boston gets second look at rookie, while turning to vet Lackey

BOSTON -- World Series. Game 6. Fenway Park. That's a combination that evokes one of the most famous home runs in Fall Classic history. In the 1975 Series, Carlton Fisk used every bit of body language he could muster to urge his long fly to left off Reds reliever Pat Darcy to stay fair in the bottom of the 12th inning. It did, keeping Boston's hopes alive for another night, before The Big Red Machine prevailed in Game 7.

The next chapter of the Red Sox's World Series saga will be written Wednesday night (7:30 p.m. ET airtime on FOX, 8:07 p.m. first pitch). The details remain to be revealed, but the stakes are simple: a Sox win gives them their third World Series championship in the past 10 years, while St. Louis needs a victory to force a decisive Game 7 on Thursday night.

The Red Sox last celebrated clinching a championship on the historic parcel of land surrounded by Lansdowne, Van Ness and Ipswich Streets and what is now known as Yawkey Way in 1918. That happened when they beat the Cubs, 2-1, also in Game 6. And there are a few interesting notes that came out of that game.

Both Red Sox runs were unearned. The official attendance was 15,238. A young pitcher-outfielder named Babe Ruth came in as a defensive replacement in left in the top of the eighth. And it was the fourth time Boston had won it all in seven years; it would be 86 years later before the club did it again. Not surprisingly, then, the buzz surrounding Wednesday's game has built to a crescendo.

"We're not out of it," said Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright, who took the loss in Game 5 on Monday night. "I fully believe that our team can go into Boston and win two games. In the postseason, pitching always rules."

The pitching matchup Wednesday night will be a reprise of Game 2, sensational 22-year-old rookie Michael Wacha for the Cards against Red Sox veteran John Lackey. Wacha got the better of the first meeting of the right-handers, getting the win while allowing just two runs on three hits in his six innings.

"What more can you say about this guy?" asked second baseman Matt Carpenter rhetorically. "He's got his own highlight tape."

Will Boston's hitters be able to adjust the second time around? There's not enough of a track record to know for sure. Yes, Wacha was just as effective against the Dodgers when he faced them a second time in the National League Championship Series. But his nine regular-season starts were against nine different teams. And there's also this: Wacha's splits this year were markedly better at Busch Stadium (2.15 ERA, .174 opponents' batting average, .504 OPS) compared to on the road (4.34 ERA, .316, .814). He did, however, beat the Red Sox at Fenway in Game 2.

"Michael is very consistent with how he approaches the game. It seems like that with every situation everybody tries to build up around him, the better he pitches," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "We want him to not really focus on the big picture of exactly what is going on. What we want him to do is go out and make one pitch at a time. There's time for summations later."

--snip--


Cards in Good Humor Despite Seven-Hour Travel Delay


New plane summoned after mechanical issues impact charter flight's departure

BOSTON -- It was just before midnight ET when the two large yellow buses pulled up to the lobby doors of the Cardinals' Boston-area hotel. John Axford, carrying his young son, was the first through the door. A line of players, staff members, wives, children and others who had been a part of the organization's traveling party followed in line.

Seven hours after their scheduled arrival time in Boston, they were finally handed a room key.

A day before facing the Red Sox in an elimination World Series game, the Cardinals spent much of their day turning an unexpected inconvenience into a unique bonding experience while stuck on the tarmac at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. About 45 minutes before their scheduled takeoff, a mechanical issue had been detected in the team's chartered plane.

The organization chose to fly to Boston on Tuesday in order to give players an extra night at home after Game 5 on Monday. Their plane was scheduled to leave around 1 p.m. CT, but crews realized that only one of the three computer navigation systems was functioning.

"It was one of those things that started and, as it was explained to me, it got to be a little more severe than they thought," said C.J. Cherre, the Cards' traveling secretary for the last 35 years. "It's a safety issue. They weren't going to fudge on that."

After about 90 minutes of trying to make the necessary repairs, Delta, which charters all of the team's flights, determined it would need another plane. It had a Boeing 767 available in Atlanta but had to first call in a pilot to fly it to St. Louis. That plane arrived around 6:45 p.m., and approximately 75 minutes later, the Cardinals were finally in the air.

It arrived in Boston at 11 p.m. local time.

"I think from a reactionary standpoint, they did everything they could," general manager John Mozeliak said from the hotel lobby. "But unfortunately, it just took awhile."

Asked why the group was not taken off the plane during the holding pattern, Cherre explained the logistical challenges that would have followed. Shuttles would have been needed to bring everyone to the terminal, and the entire traveling party would then have had to be rescreened at security.

"I don't think that anybody would say the plane was uncomfortable," Cherre added. "It was just a lot of time to spend in one place. It's like if you spend that much time in your hotel room, it's tiring."

Entertainment, though, was self-contrived and abundant according to those who were stranded. It came in all sorts of forms -- movies, music and iPad games among the most popular. Even Twitter became a distraction.

The delay prompted a frenzy of social media activity -- first from fans and eventually from players, who provided real-time insight into what it was like to spend all day trapped inside an airplane. #Cardsplaneproblems began trending nationally as Twitter was lit up with clever reasons for the delay. Even a picture of Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks obstructing the plane's departure made its way around.

Soon after, tweets starting coming out from inside the plane.

At 5:46 p.m., David Freese (@dfreese23) tweeted: "Pizza is on the way boys!!! #IMOS"

It would have been a fitting contribution from the third baseman, who is a spokesperson for the St. Louis-area pizza chain. However, it was actually Domino's pizza that came through and delivered pies to the plane at, according to Matt Carpenter's tweet, 6:45 p.m.

In between, Carpenter found a moment for humor. At 6:07 p.m. he tweeted: "On the bright side really getting to know some of my teammates children #bonding #cardsplaneproblems." Around the same time, a Cards front-office member went to Facebook to request suggestions for a "third in-flight movie."

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--snip--

Tickets for the game tonight (price per ticket) .....................

EMC Club 2
Row 3 | Qty 2
Instant Download
$12,652.00

Dugout Box 13
Row 2 | Qty 2
Instant Downloadaisle
$12,322.00

Right Field Box 95
Row TT | Qty 1
Instant Download
$11,002.00

Bleacher 38
Row 23 | Qty 2
Instant Download
$9,999.00

Field Box 73
Row H | Qty 2
Instant Download
$9,902.00

Dugout Box 36
Row 2 | Qty 2
Instant Downloadaisle
$9,500.50

Dugout Box 49
Row 1 | Qty 1-4
Instant Download
$9,091.30

Dugout Box 47
Row 2 | Qty 2
Instant Download
$9,067.10

Field Box 34
Row C | Qty 2
Instant Download
$8,912.00

Loge Box 115
Row JJ | Qty 2
Instant Download
$8,802.00

Right Field Box 8
Row E | Qty 2
Instant Download
$8,802.00

Right Field Standing Room Only
Row SR | Qty 2
Instant Download
$8,000.00

Dugout Box 40
Row A1 | Qty 1
Instant Download
$7,922.00

Dugout Box 38
Row 2 | Qty 2
Instant Downloadaisle
$7,482.00

Right Field Box 7
Row H | Qty 2
Instant Download
$7,152.00

Dugout Box 57
Row 2 | Qty 2
Instant Download
$7,014.50

Field Box 25
Row E | Qty 2-4
Instant Download
$6,808.25

Dugout Box 14
Row 3 | Qty 2
Instant Download
$6,768.10

Field Box 47
Row J | Qty 2
Instant Downloadaisle
$6,602.00

Field Box 40
Row C | Qty 2
Instant Download
$6,602.00

Wonder if Mike Zawn has any complimentary tickets ??

I heard that these are amongst the absolute HOTTEST tickets evah!!! I guess waiting since 1918 to clinch a WS Title in Fenway is worth a LOT to some Bostonians!!!

Buckner . . . The Babe Ruth Curse . . . and game 6 memories

I was thinking about those tickets..... Let's say shelling out $10 grand for a seat is not in your "pocket change" category and you are dying to see the Sawx clinch a WS Title in Fenway, do you buy a ticket for tonight (where they could be stopped by Wacha?)?? And watch on TV tomorrow evening?? Or make a "gamble" and buy a Game 7 ticket, which may payoff big time for you, or be essentially worthless..... choices.... choices.....

Boston Common: Sox Win Third World Series Since '04

Lackey Yields Just One, Victorino Notches Four RBIs, Papi Named MVP

BOSTON -- For the entire month of October, the Red Sox kept grinding with the type of tunnel vision that allowed them to prevail in every big situation imaginable.

But during the final chapter -- the one that solidified that their season will be remembered forever -- they finally had a chance to soak it all in. And ditto for their rabid fan base, which was able to cheer on a World Series clincher at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918.

In winning the World Series with a 6-1 victory over the Cardinals in Game 6 on Wednesday night, the Red Sox claimed their place in history in emphatic fashion.

By the end of the fourth inning, they led, 6-0, turning the rest of the night into joyous anticipation for the celebratory pile-up of players that occurred once it truly was over.

"To be honest, the game, it was kind of hard for me to keep my emotions down," said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "You always want to win in front of your home fans. It didn't happen for that long. It's just special. This whole year, the way it all ended, the way we came back in some of these playoff games, it's just unbelievable to think about."

After once going 86 years without a World Series title, the one the Red Sox clinched Wednesday was their third in the past 10 seasons, the most of any team in the Majors over that span.

The one common thread to all three titles won in the last decade? David Ortiz. Even though the Cards finally elected to pitch around Papi in the clincher, he did more than enough to bring home the World Series MVP.

"You know, winning this World Series is special," said Ortiz. "I think it might be the most special out of all the World Series that I have been part of, to be honest with you."

In an otherwise tense Fall Classic that they trailed, 2-1, after the first three games, manager John Farrell's team finished strong by winning the last three.

The team that started from the bottom -- as in a last-place, 69-win finish in 2012 -- is back on top of the baseball universe.

"This team has got its place in history, and I think as the year went along, the fans really recognized and appreciated the way we played the game," said Farrell. "They saw that there was a connection between each and every guy in our uniform, and I think they identified with that. I know our players thrive on the energy they create. To have it culminate in this, it's truly special."

Shane Victorino got the party started with his first hit of the World Series, a three-run double high off the Green Monster against Cardinals rookie starter Michael Wacha, who was 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the postseason before struggling in Game 6.

It was a grand return for Victorino, who missed the previous two games with tightness in his back. And it was the second straight series that Victorino broke out of his slump on clinch night. Against the Tigers in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, the outfielder did it with a grand slam.

"To get these kind of moments, it's just what it's all about," Victorino said. "For me, luckily enough, it worked out. I don't ever go up there with the mindset that this is what's going to happen. It just seems to be happening that way. And I'm very fortunate, to be able to come here, come up in that spot again tonight, bases loaded, open the game up a little bit."

--snip--

Tip of the Hat to the Sawx and their Fans!!
Great turnaround season from last to WS Champions!!
Clearly the best team in Baseball this Season...