What a weekend!!!

• Cardinals win World Series in Game 7
• Mizzou wins on the road at Texas A&M in overtime giving them a much better shot at going bowling this year
• Stanford won in triple overtime to keep the perfect season alive at USC
• Andrew Luck pretty much wrapped up the Heisman trophy for all of those people that just don't want to believe that he will win it

Game 7

•  The Cardinals crushed Harrison the last time around scoring 5 runs (3 earned) in just 3.2 innings...including 6 hits and a walk.  The Cardinals also showed signs of life in not grounding out every play (tho they got lucky on a couple of those groundballs that woulda been double plays).  Harrison who had pitched pretty well before playing the Cardinals, still only could go through 5 innings before being taken out...which plays nicely for the Cardinals who are hitting the Ranger's bullpen well right now.
• Carpenter is going to start for the Cardinals which is huge as we have already got a glimpse of what Carpenter can do in a Game 7 (even tho it was Game 5) against the Phillies.  The Cardinals are 4-1 this postseason when Carpenter starts with their one loss being when Carpenter pitched 7 innings and only allowed 2 runs (the 1-12 with risp game)...and I would hate to imagine another game where the Cardinals do so poorly with risp.  
• This game seems to look good for the Cardinals, but you have to keep in mind that Carpenter is only on 3 days rest (though he at least has some experience with that now) which could play out a little differently than if he was at normal rest.  Also the game is going to come down to whether or not the Cardinals can hit the Ranger's bullpen and after last night's game it looks as though Texas is going to have bullpen struggles with so much on the line.  
• My prediction is that the Cardinals carry the momentum from yesterday in to today, and that Harrison gets to watch as the Cardinals romp all over Texas again.  Carpenter is going to be stellar and make himself a case to go down as one of the most dominant clutch starting pitchers a team could ask for.  Its hard to say this for a Game 7...but I believe that the Cardinals are going to be able to take this one pretty easily.

Game 6

• This game is a repeat of the pitching matchup from game 2 where both pitchers did very well.  Garcia pitches much better at home, which is no secret and the reason why he has pitched 3 out of his 4 games at home this postseason (this being 4 of 5).  In his three starts at home Garcia has went 18.2 innings and allowed 4 runs.  Unfortunately for the Cardinals they are only 1-3 in games in which Garcia has started, though most of that has been because of a poor offense and not because of Garcia.
• Colby Lewis on the other hand has started all of his games on the road this postseason.  He has pitched 18.1 innings and allowed a total of 6 runs.  So both pitchers have been doing well, which was seen in game 2.  Lewis was able to do something different though against the Cardinals than he usually does and that was forcing a lot more ground balls.  He didn't allow a homerun to the Cardinals, but had allowed 3 in 11.2 innings before that, so if the Cardinals can make better contact they may have a better chance of scoring more runs off of Lewis.  
• The game is back in St. Louis and its suppose to rain, so there really shouldn't be any reason to believe that scoring will be easier here in St. Louis than it was in Texas, but after the Cardinals 16 run scoring romp they only managed 2 runs in the next two games, so one would believe (hope) that they would be able to put up more runs in front of the home crowd.  
• This will be the 7th straight road start for Lewis, which I would believe would have some sort of impact on the guy but they are 4-2 during that span.  Yet, one difference that I noticed is that he was able to get the Cardinals to hit a lot of ground balls and I believe that is key for the Cardinals to step up and not hit into double plays, groundouts, etc. if they are wanting to win this game, as they can't have another lob frenzy like they did last game if they want to win the World Series.
• My prediction is that with the series on the line the Cardinals are able to make better contact and have a game that is not overly filled with ground balls that allow them to score some runs off of Lewis.  I believe that Garcia will continue pitching as well as he has been and that the Cardinals will be able to actually put forth an offensive effort to help him out and the Cardinals win and force a game 7.

World Series Game 3

Lohse vs Harrison

• Lohse has been having a very tough postseason having a 7.45 ERA and the Cardinals are 0-2 when he starts....and with the offensive capabilities of the Rangers ballpark this could end up being a very high scoring game unlike the games have been in St. Louis, so this could spell trouble for Lohse and will probably lead to more work for the bullpen.  
• Harrison on the other hand has been a pretty good starter this postseason with the Rangers being 2-0 when he starts and him having a 4.22 ERA...he has only gone 5 innings in both of his starts though, and both were on the road.  
• So what does this mean for the game? Well the Cardinals seem to be hitting better than Texas right now, but I am going to assume that evens out as Texas plays in front of the home crowd.  I believe that Home Runs are going to be much more important in this series and Lohse has been showing signs of allowing quite a bit, while Harrison has been pretty good at keeping it in the ballpark...
• The main point from this game is that its not going to be a pitcher's duel like the first two....this game is going to involve the bullpen, where if the Cardinals bullpen begins to not be the unstoppable force that it has been could see troubles for us here in game 3...so hopefully Lohse can pitch better than he has been and put less stress on the bullpen.
• My prediction for the game is that there will be much more scoring and that Harrison is going to have a lot more trouble in this game than he has had so far this postseason.  I believe that the game is going to come down to the bullpen, but hopefully Harrison is not able to deal with the Cardinals lineup and the Cardinals are able to pull this one off.

Game 1: Cardinals vs Rangers

Chris Carpenter vs C. J. Wilson

• Wilson pitched well all season finishing with 16 wins and a 2.94 ERA....in the playoffs tho the Rangers are 1-2 when he pitches and the only game they one they pulled him in the 5th.  Batters have a .387 OBP versus Wilson so far in the playoffs and he has an 8.04 ERA in the playoffs including 6 HRs in 15.2 IP, so basically what seemed to be a very strong finish to the regular season for Wilson has not transitioned into the playoffs.
• Carpenter has pitched very well for the Cardinals down the stretch when they needed him...as the Cardinals have won 7 of the last 8 that he has started.  Carpenter on the other hand has batters having a .314 OBP and a 3.71 ERA in the playoffs while only allowing 1 HR...these numbers aren't that great considering his complete game shutout against the Phillies...but the fact that he threw a complete game shutout against the Phillies is exactly the reason why I would much rather have Carpenter on the mound compared to Wilson.  
• Both teams have a high powered offense with a slight advantage in stats to the Rangers...but considering their ballpark, I'd say that it really isn't that much of an advantage if any, as the Rangers Ballpark has the more runs in it than any other stadium (tho if the Rangers have a high powered offense that should be expected), while Busch is near the bottom placing 25th outta 30th (with the Cardinals offense shouldn't make as much sense).
• The big thing that it comes down to seems to be whose bullpen is going to pitch better and with both bullpen's pitching well right now that's pretty much a toss up, but it would be nice to see Carpenter go deeper into this first game to relieve the bullpen a little bit.
• The winner in all of this is going to be Arthur Rhodes, who pitched for the Rangers til the very end of July...so with both of his teams in the world series is most likely getting a ring no matter what, but I'm sure he would much rather see the team his on now win it, rather than the team that got rid of him.
• My prediction for the first game is that the Cardinals are going to win as I am not expecting too much from Wilson (more in terms of innings than quality) and am expecting Carpenter to pitch well, hopefully having the Cardinals jump out to a lead that they are able to hold on to down the stretch.

The Cardinals are going to the World Series!!!