St. Louis Cardinals vs. Boston Red Sox

The Cardinals have been on an amazing run of success in the last 10 seasons.  Since 2004 St. Louis has appeared in three World Series and won two of them.  They’ve won four National League Pennants counting this year and have appeared in six National League Championship series.  The one constant throughout this run of success has been the Cardinals pitching staff and it was no different against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.  The MVP of that series was Cardinals starter Michael Wacha.  In his two starts against the Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, Wacha was phenomenal striking out 13 in his 13 and 2/3 innings pitched while allowing only 7 hits and no runs.  His game 2 start set the tone and put the Cardinals up 2-0 in the series.  It also helped that the Cardinals bullpen was just as good with Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal giving up only three combined hits in their 9 and 2/3 innings pitched while striking out 11 combined hitters.  With those three and the fact that they still have an ace in Adam Wainwright the Cardinals staff is poised to win a third World Series in a ten year span.  They’ll of course need a big performance from their hitters such as OF Carlos Beltran who is making his first World Series appearance of his career.  His 6 RBIs in the NLCS led the team who had a difficult task to score runs against the Dodgers starting staff.  2B Matt Carpenter bounced back in the NLCS with a .261 average and 4 runs scored.  Their big boppers, 1B Matt Adams, OF Matt Holliday and C Yadier Molina will need to do better.   Good news for the Cardinals is that 1B Allen Craig will be available for the World Series recovering from an ankle injury. Should the Cardinals continue this run of success it will be because of a talented pitching staff and timely hitting.

Boston’s last 10 seasons have gone a little differently from St. Louis’.  This will be their third trip to the World Series in that span, but after last year’s 69 win debacle no one, not even their most loyal fan base expected them to get back to this position.  The Red Sox were consistently the best team in the American League this year and their record showed it.  Their run in the American League Championship Series could have gone in a different direction had it not been for a grand slam by DH David Ortiz to tie the game and to eventually win it in the 9th during game 2.  More heroics happened in game 6 when OF Shane Victorino hit a grand slam to put the Red Sox ahead for good in the ALCS and eventually clinch the AL Pennant.  Other than those two moments the Red Sox bats were kept relatively quiet by the Tigers pitching staff.  Their hitters struck out a combined 73 times in those six games, but they scored runs when they had to at the right time.  They could have the same problem again with a talented Cardinals staff that can pile up huge strikeout numbers.  Boston will need their table setters in OF Jacoby Ellsbury and 2B Dustin Pedroia to play up to their standard to put pressure on the Cardinals pitchers.  If those two can repeat the success they had in the ALCS the Red Sox will be fine on offense.  Their bullpen was the star of the ALCS and the MVP, closer Koji Uehara with his 3 saves and 1 win were a testament to the Red Sox success against the Tigers.  If Jon Lester and John Lackey can set the tone in their starts for the bullpen to finish the job then Boston won’t have any trouble with home field advantage on their side.