2006 World Series (Official Thread)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

CPD

WORLD SERIES: CARDS 5, TIGERS 4
Cardinals have Tigers on brink


Friday, October 27, 2006

Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter

St. Louis- Just like that, St. Louis is one victory away from the World Series championship.
They didn't even do it themselves. The Tigers did it for them.
After Tigers rookie reliever Joel Zumaya wild pitched Aaron Miles to second base with two out in the eighth inning Thursday night, David Eckstein doubled off the top of Craig Monroe's glove in left field to give the Cardinals a 5-4 victory in Game 4 and a commanding 3-1 lead.
Eckstein, who came into Thursday's game hitting .185 (10-for-54) in the postseason, went 4-for-5 with three doubles.
The Tigers' downfall started in the seventh.
In the span of two pitches, Curtis Granderson fell down and reliever Fernando Rodney made a throwing error to erase a 3-2 lead.
Eckstein sent a fly ball to center field that Granderson could have caught in his sleep, but he slipped as he turned to track the ball and it fell for a double.
Pinch-hitter So Taguchi sent a first-pitch bunt along the first-base line. Rodney made a wild throw as Eckstein scored to make it 3-3. It was a record fourth error by a Tigers pitcher in the Series.
Rodney intentionally walked Albert Pujols and struck out Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen, but could not escape with the tie. Preston Wilson's single to left gave the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.
"Can we win three games in a row? Absolutely," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "Are we in a bad spot? Absolutely."
The Tigers made it 4-4 in the eighth on Brandon Inge's double off Adam Wainwright. Wainwright pitched the ninth for the victory.
Rodney, before his problems in the seventh, pitched Jeremy Bonderman out of trouble in the sixth to protect the 3-2 lead.
Rolen opened with his second straight double. Wilson bunted him to third and Bonderman issued an unintentional intentional walk to Yadier Molina on four pitches.
Rodney relieved and struck out Miles and John Rodriguez, pinch-hitting for Jeff Suppan, to ice Rolen at third.
Bonderman allowed two runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. Suppan allowed three runs on eight hits in six innings.
Left-handers hit .302 against Suppan in the regular season and the numbers held true Thursday.
Sean Casey, a left-handed hitter, helped give Detroit a 3-0 lead in the first three innings. He homered with one out in the second for the first run of the game. It was his first homer of the postseason and the Tigers' first of the World Series.
Granderson, another lefty, doubled to start the third. It broke his 0-for-14 World Series slump. Leadoff hitters had been 0-for-18 against Suppan in the postseason.
After Carlos Guillen, a switch-hitter batting left, walked with one out and Magglio Ordonez flied out to left, Casey struck again. He singled to right to make it 2-0 as Guillen went to third. Casey, a lifetime .333 (5-for-15) hitter against Suppan, went 3-for-3 against him Thursday. His third hit, a single in the fifth, gave him five straight hits going back to Game 3.
Ivan Rodriguez singled to score Guillen for a 3-0 lead. Rodriguez ended his 0-for-11 Series slump with a single in the second.
St. Louis made it 3-1 in the third on Eckstein's double.
Miles, making his second start of the Series for slumping Ronnie Belliard, singled and stole second before Suppan struck out. It was the first stolen base of the Series.
Eckstein doubled over a leaping Guillen at short for just his third RBI of the postseason.
Bonderman gave up another two-out double in the fourth.
Rolen doubled to left with one out and took third on Wilson's ground out. Molina lined a double past third to score Rolen and make it 3-2. Bonderman intentionally walked Miles and retired Suppan.
Molina went into Thursday's game hitting .319 (15-for-47) in the postseason after hitting .216 in the regular season.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-5158

 

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

St. Louis can clinch tonight
Friday, October 27, 2006
Mike Fitzpatrick
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORRY GASH ASSOCIATED PRESS The Tigers? Placido Polanco waits for the throw as the Cardinals? Scott Rolen slides into second base.
ST. LOUIS ? With some help from a soggy field and two big hits by little David Eckstein, the St. Louis Cardinals took control of the World Series with a wild comeback win.
Eckstein?s tiebreaking double glanced off the glove of a diving Craig Monroe in left field in the eighth inning, and the Cardinals capitalized on Detroit?s sloppy defense for a 5-4 win last night in Game 4.
"He?s the toughest guy I?ve ever seen in a uniform," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.
After Curtis Granderson slipped in center field trying for another ball hit by Eckstein, rekindling memories of Curt Flood in the 1968 Series, St. Louis went on to take a 3-1 lead to move to one win from its first championship in 24 years.
Jeff Weaver can wrap it up tonight in Busch Stadium against rookie Justin Verlander.
One word of caution, Cardinals fans: St. Louis had a 3-1 lead in ?68, too, before Detroit rallied to win.
The decisive hit that time came when Flood, a Gold Glove center fielder, slipped on Jim Northrup?s two-out, two-run triple off Cardinals ace Bob Gibson to break a scoreless tie in the seventh inning of Game 7.
This time, the 5-foot-7 Eckstein hit three doubles and a single as St. Louis overcame an early 3-0 deficit.
After a rainout Wednesday night, the heavy stuff stayed away on a 53-degree night and much of the back-and-forth game was played in a light mist that obscured the Gateway Arch beyond center field.
The mist got heavier in the sixth.
With St. Louis trailing 3-2 in the seventh, Eckstein hit a drive to right-center that Granderson appeared to have in his sights before he slipped to the slick turf, kicking up a huge divot. The ball fell for an easy double.
"If I had stayed up, I catch it easily," Granderson said. "It wasn?t too much of a cut. As soon as I planted, it went underneath me.
"It wasn?t just wet. It was wet and soft."
Pinch-hitter So Taguchi dropped down a sacrifice bunt, and reliever Fernando Rodney threw the ball way over the head of Placido Polanco covering at first base, allowing Eckstein to score the tying run.
It was the fourth error by a Tigers pitcher in four games, a record for one pitching staff in the World Series.
After an intentional walk to Albert Pujols and two strikeouts, Preston Wilson singled to left against Rodney to give St. Louis a 4-3 lead.
But Ivan Rodriguez opened the eighth with a double and Brandon Inge tied it with a double off rookie closer Adam Wainwright.
Yadier Molina drew a leadoff walk from Joel Zumaya in the eighth before Aaron Miles beat out a potential doubleplay ball.
Miles moved up when strike three to Juan Encarnacion got past Rodriguez for a wild pitch, and Eckstein hit a drive to left-center.
Monroe sprinted to his left and laid out with a desperate dive, but the ball ticked off the tip of his glove, allowing Miles to score the go-ahead run.
"Facing Zumaya, you want to make sure you don?t try to overswing," Eckstein said. "I got a fastball and was able to get on top just enough, just barely out of the reach of Craig Monroe, who almost made one heck of a catch."
Wainwright set down Detroit in order in the ninth.

 

[TRON]

Goodbye baseball until spring

Im gonna miss you :(

Congrats St Louis

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

Cardinals take out Tigers despite little from Pujols

R.B. FALLSTROM

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS - Albert Pujols was not the biggest performer for a change as the St. Louis Cardinals won their first World Series championship in 24 years.
He was just a part of the cast that beat the Detroit Tigers in five games. And that was quite all right with the reigning NL MVP, who has always said he'd trade success for a World Series ring.
"Definitely, this is what it's all about," Pujols said while good-naturedly dousing reporters with champagne after the 4-2 clinching victory Friday night. "Definitely, we put a postseason together.
"We forgot about the struggles of the regular season and we turned it around when we needed to."
The city's first baseball championship since the days of Whitey Ball was indeed a team effort. David Eckstein was named the World Series MVP, but Scott Rolen, Yadier Molina, Jim Edmonds and all the starting pitchers could have made an argument for the award.
"Pujols is an unbelievable player," teammate Scott Spiezio said. "He carries the team at times, but other people carry the team at times.
"From the lowest guy on the bench, we all contribute in some way."
Pujols had another monster season with 49 home runs and 137 RBIs, but batted just .200 with one homer, an opposite-field shot in Game 1, and two RBIs in the Series. He made a bigger contribution with his defense at first base.
"You can't win with just one guy," rookie closer Adam Wainwright said after his fourth save of the postseason. "Albert is probably the main reason we're here, but once we got here everybody stepped up their game. Everybody was fantastic."
Every team, not just the Tigers, talks about pitching carefully to Pujols, and that likely contributed to his low production. But Pujols admitted before Game 5 that mostly it was his fault because at times he tried to do too much.
In Game 5, he was a quiet 1-for-3 with a single, walk and a strikeout. His biggest play came to open the seventh when he made a sprawling stop of Placido Polanco's hard-hit grounder and while flat on his back flipped the ball to pitcher Jeff Weaver in time to keep the Tigers' postseason star - and his best friend - hitless in the Series.
"Albert is an exceptional fielder," Weaver said. "He made a great play. I just wanted to concentrate and make sure I put a glove on it.
"Anytime you make big plays it changes the momentum of the game, and I think that was a big one."
Pujols batted .288 overall in the postseason with three homers and six RBIs after leading the major leagues with 25 game-winning RBIs in the regular season. This time, he was along for the ride.
Eckstein, 0-for-9 the first two games, finished with six hits and four RBIs in the last two to earn the MVP award.
Molina, a .216 hitter in the regular season, had three hits in the clincher and was 7-for-16 in the Series. Rolen, benched in Game 2 of the NL championship series because of a slump combined with a sore shoulder, hit safely in the last 10 games after being reinstated. Edmonds, plagued by post-concussion syndrome and a sore left foot in the last month-and-a-half of the regular season, led the team with 10 RBIs in the postseason.
"I said before the Series that they weren't just one guy," Tigers starter Justin Verlander said. "If those guys get it going, they don't need Pujols to do it by himself because they've got a great lineup."
The pitching also outshone Pujols.
Weaver began his career in Detroit, had it derailed in Anaheim and celebrated its rebirth while allowing one earned run in eight innings in his longest postseason outing. At the end, the former retread stood alongside Chris Carpenter, NLCS MVP Jeff Suppan and even rookie Anthony Reyes, who threw eight shutout innings in Game 1, as pitchers the team could count on in October.
And the Cardinals capitalized on every break, taking advantage of Tigers errors in each of the last three games.
"We knew if you go man to man with those guys over there that we wouldn't have any chance," Pujols said. "We were the underdogs so we tried to take advantage of every mistake.
"In the postseason those errors are critical, they can make you pay."

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

Eckstein comes up big, wins World Series MVP award

BEN WALKER

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS - When David Eckstein was done hugging his teammates, hoisting the MVP trophy and saluting a roaring crowd, he leaned against the prize that goes to the top player in the World Series - a new, bright yellow Corvette.
At that moment, he was really riding high.
"It was unreal out there," the St. Louis shortstop told fans Friday night. "We got ourselves a championship."
The Cardinals were certainly glad they had baseball's biggest little man.
"Whenever David is playing, there is absolutely no doubt that our club responds to how hard he plays," manager Tony La Russa said. "He is a wonderful leader."
At 5-foot-7 and banged up all season, Eckstein looked worn down when the Series started. But after going 0-for-11, he showed the true spirit of St. Louis and came on strong.
Eckstein hit three doubles and a single to win Game 4, then singled twice and drove in two runs in Game 5 as St. Louis beat Detroit 4-2 to clinch its first title since 1982.
Eckstein finished 8-for-22, driving in four runs and scoring three.
"When you suit up in spring training, your main goal is to win a world championship. That's all you play for," he said. "All the little things that you do to get to this situation are well worth it."
La Russa and several Cardinals lifted Eckstein off the ground as they celebrated in the middle of the diamond.
After shaking hands with commissioner Bud Selig and speaking from a podium put up near second base, Eckstein got the keys to the Corvette. Wheeled onto the infield dirt, it came to a stop near the spot where Eckstein plays.
"This is my first car I can call my own from the beginning," he said.
A fairy tale, maybe, and fitting.
He married actress Ashley Drane - she's been on "That '70s Show" and "That's So Raven" - last November and their wedding reception featured an Alice in Wonderland theme at Walt Disney World.
Eckstein became the first NL shortstop to win the Series MVP award. Three AL shortstops have done it: Derek Jeter (2000), Alan Trammell (1984) and Bucky Dent (1978).
Eckstein's size - and 5-7 is being generous - and enthusiasm can mask his skills. A two-time All-Star who was waived by Boston in 2000, he's now a two-time Series champion.
"I can remember talking to Don Zimmer a couple of years ago about him," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said before Game 5. "He said, 'You look at him, you can't figure it out.' And then during the course of the game he's in the middle of every single thing."
Eckstein sparked the Anaheim Angels over San Francisco for the 2002 crown and was invited to the White House, where his mom met President Bush. Later, at an awards banquet in New York, Barry Bonds told Eckstein's mother, "You've got a great son."
After the 2004 season, though, the Angels decided they could do better at the plate and in the field than Eckstein, who seems to need every ounce of energy to throw the ball to first base.
So in what amounted to a three-team merry-go-round of shortstops, Edgar Renteria went to Boston, Orlando Cabrera moved to the Angels and Eckstein wound up in St. Louis. At the time, there were plenty of other shortstops considered better than Eckstein - Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada and Nomar Garciaparra, among them.
La Russa will take Eckstein, every time.
"To me, he's our shortstop," he said during the postgame party. "And believe me, he's more than just guts, he's a very good player."
Hobbled for much of this season, the 31-year-old Eckstein was slowed by injuries to his shoulder, hamstring and side. He also had a concussion, and was so worn down that he skipped the Cardinals' off-day workout Monday.
Other teams noticed, too, that he was banged up. Opposing outfielders started moving in against him, cheating a few feet and later taking several steps closer, aware that Eckstein couldn't drive the ball.
A couple of extra inches were all Eckstein needed in Game 4. With the score tied in the eighth inning, he hit a two-out drive that ticked off left fielder Craig Monroe's outstretched glove for a go-ahead double.
"I think they were definitely playing percentages, and that's where I probably would have been playing myself," he said.
The odds have been against Eckstein since he was in youth ball, when coaches began telling him he was too small to play. Eckstein comes from a family with a troubled medical past, with three family members needing kidney transplants. There's been no indication he will need one.
"He's the toughest guy I've ever seen in a uniform," La Russa said.

 

[coastalbuck]

Congrats Cardinals, good for the old NL. I can't wait till next year with the Brennaman's in the booth, I can't wait for the first "and this one belongs to the Reds.!" Baseball starts for me in Jan. with practices leading up the our first game in Feb. I'm lucky, I get a long baseball season.