Cardinals win World Series 

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Jason Motte #30 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 to win the World Series during Game Seven of the MLB World Series at Busch Stadium on October 28, 2011 in St Louis, Missouri. Rob Carr/Getty Images/AFP

ST. LOUIS - Whenever Chris Carpenter decides to hang up his baseball cleats, he might think about getting a gig as a motivational speaker.

In the section of his resume reserved for past accomplishments he can already claim: “talked my baseball team into winning the World Series.”

He could also add that he did a passable job of pitching, as well.

The St. Louis Cardinals capped one of history’s most preposterous runs to a World Series championship Friday night with a seventh game 6-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

Compared to Thursday night’s dramatic 10-9 thrill ride in Game 6, when the Cardinals survived not one, but two, near-death experiences to extend the series, this clincher was a stress-free trip to the library.

Working on three days’ rest, Carpenter pitched six strong innings, allowing just two first-inning runs and six hits overall for his second win in the series. By that point St. Louis had a 5-2 advantage that would grow by a run in the seventh inning, putting the Cardinals’ 11th World Series title on ice.

Despite their brave front, it was clear throughout this deciding game that the Rangers, after coming so close on Thursday night, twice leading by two runs with one strike to go, just did not have anything left in the tank for Game 7.

St. Louis, on the other hand, seemed energized by the emotional Thursday win that even strengthened their belief in themselves as a team of destiny.

Before the game, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa talked about the supercharged atmosphere in his team’s dugout on Thursday.

“Even when we were down,” said La Russa, “one of our veterans made sure everybody heard him when he said “this historic run is not going to end today.”

And if it didn’t end on Thursday, the Cards certainly weren’t going to let it end on Friday.

The Cardinals have been playing what amount to elimination games for the last two months. On August 25, they stood 10 games behind NL Central-leading Milwaukee and 10.5 games behind wild-card-leading Atlanta. St. Louis had been playing lousy baseball for the two previous weeks and Carpenter called a team meeting to deliver a message that this wasn’t acceptable.

“It wasn’t about making a run to the playoffs,” said Carpenter. “It was about having pride and about how we were playing. We have expectations in this clubhouse and we weren’t meeting it. From that day on, we started playing good baseball.”

They caught and passed the Braves for the wild card spot on the final day of the season after an amazing run down the stretch. Then they took the heavily-favoured Phillies to five games and Carpenter bested Roy Halladay in the fifth and deciding game. They took out the Brewers in six games of the NLCS and, heading into Friday’s final game of the year, had a chance to make this impossible dream come true.

“After that meeting,” said La Russa, “the team decided it was just going to play every game like it’s the seventh game of the World Series. And they did it every day for six weeks, and then they started enjoying doing that.”

And then, Saturday evening, they looked up and it WAS the seventh game of the World Series.

The Rangers jumped away to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on consecutive RBI-doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young but St. Louis matched those runs in the bottom of the first. Starter Matt Harrison got two quick outs, then walked Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman before Freese doubled them both home.

Allen Craig’s solo home run in the third gave St. Louis the lead they never relinquished. That’s the way it stayed until the fifth, when St. Louis scored two runs without a base hit. Scott Feldman walked Craig, hit Pujols with a pitch, walked Freese intentionally, then walked Yadier Molina to score a run.

C.J. Wilson then came out of the bullpen, still with the bases loaded, and hit Rafael Furcal with the first pitch he threw to give St. Louis a 5-2 lead. They added another in the seventh on an RBI single by Molina and then the bullpen took great care to shepherd the lead the rest of the way.

For the Rangers it was a bitter disappointment to lose for the second consecutive year. Last season, they were taken out in a five-game World Series by the San Francisco Giants but had hoped to bring the first title to Texas, where the franchise has resided since 1972.