Cardinals are in the World Series!

Okay, so this post is a couple of days late. But to my credit, I've been in a bit a shock about the whole thing. The St. Louis Cardinals are in the World Series after winning game 6 of the NLCS.

The NLCS was not pretty by any means. In fact, the Cardinals relievers pitched more innings than their starters. That's...unnerving. But, at the same time, the bullpen really stepped up. However, one has to wonder how they'll manage the World Series. We could use some good outings from our starters, particularly Carpenter, Lohse and Garcia. Jackson was taken out of game 6 of the NLCS after 2 innings! Though to be fair, the Brewers had to pull Marcum after the 1st. Game 6 was pretty ugly when it came to pitching, the Cardinals just ended up pulling out more offense.

Also, the Brewers made a ton of mistakes. There were so many fielding errors in this series. While I'm happy to see my Cardinals in the series, I do feel bad for Milwaukee. They are a better team than the one we saw in the NLCS. But, as we seem to see every year, teams that get hot late in the season can be very dangerous. And if there is one thing I've learned from the 2011 Cardinals team, it's that they have heart, passion and drive to succeed.

So, here we are. Tomorrow is game 1 of the World Series, in St. Louis (thanks to the NL's win in the All-Star game) against the Texas Rangers. The Rangers don't scare me for some reason. I'm not saying they aren't good, they most definitely are. Nelson Cruz scares me a bit since he's been hot in the postseason. But the Rangers pitching has not exactly been lights out. They are beatable.

We'll see how it goes. I am just thrilled to see the Cardinals make it this far. Of course, I hope they win and if they lose I'll probably be in a bad mood for a few days (come on, there is nothing worse than seeing your team make it to the big game only to lose. Believe me, I know. Superbowls XXXVI and XLIV still hurt). But I will know that this was a team that was never expected to get this far, and they performed far better than I had hoped (at least as of August of this year. You never give up hope, but certainly in August I thought it was a total long shot).

So, let's do this Cardinals. Bring St. Louis that 11th World Series title. 11 in 2011!