Well, at least I got the “______ in 5” part right. The guy holding the sign in the new Busch Stadium wasn’t kidding when he said, “Hit it to the pitcher.” Ye gods. Kenny Rogers was surely hitting cameramen off-camera after what he saw on the field tonight.
The game had two goats in place, depending on how it turned out. If the Cardinals lose, then your goat is Chris Duncan, who booted a routine fly out to right field when Jim Edmonds invaded his space and freaked him out, causing Duncan to take his eye off the ball. One pitch later, Sean Casey deposits a ball into the right field seats and gives Detroit a 2-1 lead. Later, Duncan misplays a ball at the wall – also hit by Casey, his second double of the night – but that does not come back to haunt the Cardinals in any way.
The goat for the Tigers, on the other hand, is undoubtedly Brandon Inge, despite his lofty batting average during the Series. He made the throwing error to first that allowed the first run to score. Then, after hitting a double, he was caught in a rundown between second and third after running on contact to a ball up the middle, which Jeff Weaver picked off and hurled to third to begin the rundown.
And then there was the worst play of the game, which will make sci-fi geeks the world over wonder if the Matrix really does exist (well, the sci-fi geeks that watch sports, anyway). With runners on first and second, Justin Verlander, who was toooooooooootally overexcited for this game, fielded a come-backer from Jeff Weaver, the freaking pitcher, and threw to Inge to get the force at third. Only problem was, he threw about three feet to the left of the bag, just like Joel Zumaya did in Game 3. If you combine the two official errors, and the unofficial baserunning error, Inge was involved in all three plays.
I did say at the beginning of the playoffs that the Tigers were a year early, that they weren’t ready to compete yet. Still, I have to think that the Yankees would have put up a better fight than this in the World Series. Maybe there is something to be said for the LDS being seven games instead of five. Until that day, congrats to the Cardinals, and World Series MVP David Eckstein (!), for proving us experts horribly, horribly wrong. Only five more months before the Cubs begin breaking my heart once again.
