The St. Louis Cardinals today named former catcher Mike Matheny as the team’s new manager.  The announcement was made by team Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt, Jr. and Senior Vice President/General Manager John Mozeliak at a morning news conference.

Matheny, 41, becomes the 49th manager in Cardinals franchise history, succeeding Tony La Russa who announced his retirement on October 31 after 16 seasons at the helm of the Redbirds.

“What a wonderful and exciting opportunity this is,” said Matheny.  “My focus as manager will always be on continuing the winning tradition of Cardinals baseball in a way that brings both honor and respect to those who have preceded me.  I am anxious to get started and I look forward to the challenges ahead.”

Matheny, who most recently has served as a Special Assistant in Player Development for the Cardinals, enjoyed a 13-year career in the majors, earning recognition as one of the game’s most respected and toughest competitors.

“We are excited to announce Mike as the newest Cardinals manager,” said DeWitt.  “Cardinals managers have established a distinguished place in baseball history over the years.  We believe that Mike has the leadership characteristics and passion for the game to continue the great tradition of Cardinals success.  He was a winning player, highly respected by his teammates, and knows our current club and organization as well as anyone.”

“When we began our managerial search there were many qualified individuals, but after meeting with Mike and having also worked with him, we all knew that he was the right fit for this job,” said Mozeliak.  “Everyone respected Mike as a player and now we will have the opportunity to watch him grow as a manager.”

Matheny inherits a Cardinals team that just last month captured the 11th World Championship title in franchise history.   It should be noted that Hall-of-Famer Red Schoendienst also took over a Cardinals defending World Championship team in his first year (1965) as manager and went on manage the Cardinals for 12-straight seasons from 1965-1976.

Matheny at age 41 becomes the youngest active manager in the majors and the youngest Cardinals manager since Jack Krol, who was also 41 years of age when he managed the team in 1978.  Matheny joins notables such as Schoendienst, Joe Torre, Ken Boyer, Frank Frisch and Rogers Hornsby amongst Cardinals players who also later served as the team’s manager.

Michael Scott Matheny, who was drafted by Milwaukee in 1991 out of the University of Michigan, made his Major League debut in 1994 for the Brewers where he spent five seasons (1994-98) before signing a free-agent contract with Toronto in 1999.   He joined the Cardinals in 2000 and spent five seasons (2000-04) with St. Louis, earning trips to the postseason in four of those five years.  His playing career ended after a two year (2005-06) stint with the San Francisco Giants.

A four-time (2000, 2003-05) Rawlings Gold Glove recipient, Matheny holds the Major League catching record for consecutive errorless games (252) and for consecutive errorless chances (1,565).   He posted a career batting mark of .239 with 67 home runs and 443 RBI in 1,305 games.

Matheny served as an inspirational leader during the Cardinals 2002 season, helping the team to cope with the shocking death of pitcher Darryl Kile while still reaching the National League Championship Series.  Matheny was voted by his teammates in 2003 as the first recipient of the Darryl Kile Award  – an award that goes annually to the Cardinals player who best demonstrates the  qualities that Darryl brought to the clubhouse every day; those of a good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man.

A native of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Matheny and his wife, Kristin, now make their home in St. Louis County with their five children; Tate, Katie, Luke, Jacob and Blaise.

Matheny plans to wear his familiar uniform #22, a number that was assigned to him in his first call-up by the Brewers and a number he continued to wear as a member of the Cardinals.

Matheny has agreed to a two-year contract for 2012-13 that includes a club option for 2014.

— Cardinals Public Relations —

Tony La Russa, the winningest manager in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history, today announced his retirement after a record 16 seasons as the team’s manager.  La Russa, 67, guided the Cardinals to their 11th World Championship this season and leaves the game ranked 3rd all-time in managerial wins (2,728) behind only John McGraw (2,763) and Connie Mack (3,731).

“My most prominent feeling today as I reflect back on my 33 years of managing and my 16 years as a St. Louis Cardinal is my overwhelming gratitude for the good fortune that I have had and the many people who helped me along the way,” said La Russa.  “I had the opportunity to work for three organizations that were all very different, but very much the same in the most important way – their drive for success.”

“On behalf of the entire Cardinals organization and our tremendous fans, I want to thank Tony for everything he has done over the past 16 years to help keep the Cardinals among the most respected and revered franchises in all of professional sports,” stated Cardinals Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill DeWitt, Jr.  “Tony leaves behind a legacy of success that will always be considered one of the greatest eras in Cardinals history; an era that began immediately with a Division title in 1996 and was capped off with a World Championship in 2011”

La Russa, who was named the Cardinals 48th manager on October 23, 1995, guided the Cardinals to a franchise record 1,408 wins.  He led the Cardinals to eight division titles (1996, 2000-02, 2004-06 & 2009), three National League pennants (2004, 2006 & 2011) and two World Championships (2006 & 2011).

“It has been a privilege and an honor to work with one of the greatest managers in the history of the game,” said Cardinals Sr. Vice President and General Manager John Mozeliak, “Tony has been a leader, an innovator and a friend.”

La Russa is 2nd all-time in games managed with 5,097, including stints with the Chicago White Sox (1979-86) and Oakland A’s (1986-95).   He ranks 1st on the Cardinals all-time games managed list with 2,491 and his 16 years of continuous service were tops among active managers/head coaches in the four major professional sports leagues.

La Russa’s Cardinals teams finished above .500 in 13 of his 16 seasons.  They recorded 105 wins in 2004 and 100 wins in 2005, making La Russa just the second Cardinals manager to oversee two 100-win seasons.  This year La Russa became only the second manager to win two World Championships with the Cardinals, joining Billy Southworth (1942 & 1944).  La Russa and Sparky Anderson are the only managers to have led both a National and American League team to World Series titles.

During La Russa’s 16 years at the Cardinals helm, the team surpassed 3 million in season attendance 13 times, including a franchise record 3, 552,180 fans in 2007.  His Cardinals teams finished no lower then 3rd place in all but three seasons.

La Russa’s Cardinals teams posted a National League best 913 wins during the decade of the 2000s, winning a league-leading 33 postseason games during that same time frame.   Since joining the Cardinals in 1996, La Russa’s teams led the National League with 50 wins in the postseason and their .544 regular season winning pct. (1,408-1,182) ranked 2nd in the N.L. during that span.

— Cardinals Public Relations —

Albert Pujols thrust both arms high in the air, even before he reached home plate.

It was only the first inning, and already it felt as if the St. Louis Cardinals were home free. Because after they had overcome so much just to get this far, what could stop them?

The Cardinals won a remarkable World Series they weren’t even supposed to reach, beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 on Friday night with another key hit by hometown star David Freese and six gutty innings from Chris Carpenter.

Pushed to the brink, the Cardinals kept saving themselves. A frantic rush to reach the postseason on the final day. A nifty pair of comebacks in the playoffs. Two desperate rallies in Game 6.

“This whole ride, this team deserves this,” said Freese, who added the Series MVP award to his trophy as the NL championship MVP.

A day after an epic game that saw them twice within one strike of elimination before winning 10-9 in 11 innings, the Cardinals captured their 11th World Series crown.

“It’s hard to explain how this happened,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Following a whole fall on the edge, including a surge from 10½ games down in the wild-card race, La Russa’s team didn’t dare mess with Texas, or any more drama in baseball’s first World Series Game 7 since the Angels beat Giants in 2002.

Freese’s two-run double tied it in the first, with Pujols celebrating as he scored. Good-luck charm Allen Craig hit a go-ahead homer in the third.

Given a chance to pitch by a Game 6 rainout and picked by La Russa earlier in the day to start on three days’ rest, Carpenter and the tireless St. Louis bullpen closed it out.

No Rally Squirrel needed on this night, either. Fireworks and confetti rang out at Busch Stadium when Jason Motte retired David Murphy on a fly ball to end it.

“We just kept playing,” Cardinals star Lance Berkman said.

Said La Russa: “If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back.”

The Rangers, meanwhile, will spend the whole winter wondering how it all got away. Texas might dwell on it forever, in fact, or at least until Nolan Ryan & Co. can reverse a World Series slide that started with last year’s five-game wipeout against San Francisco.

“We were close. Two times. Game 6. That’s it,” Texas pitcher Colby Lewis said.

Ryan left tightlipped. When a reporter tried to ask the Rangers president and part-owner a question, someone in his entourage said: “He’s not talking.”

Texas had not lost consecutive games since August. These two defeats at Busch Stadium cost manager Ron Washington and the Rangers a chance to win their first title in the franchise’s 51-year history.

Instead, Texas became the first team to lose the Series two straight years since Atlanta in 1991-92.

“Sometimes when opportunity is in your presence, you certainly can’t let it get away because sometimes it takes a while before it comes back,” Washington said. “If there’s one thing that happened in this World Series that I’ll look back on is being so close, just having one pitch to be made and one out to be gotten, and it could have been a different story.”

Added Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre: “We tried to come back today, but the momentum just took them.

“It’s not a nice feeling, you know, being one strike away twice. I guess it’s probably easier to lose four games in a row in a World Series, but being a strike away it’s something that will be hard to forget.”

This marked the ninth straight time the home team had won Game 7 in the World Series. The wild-card Cardinals held that advantage over the AL West champions because the NL won the All-Star Game — Texas could blame that on their own pitcher, C.J. Wilson, who took the loss in July.

A year full of inspiring rallies and epic collapses was encapsulated in Game 6. Freese was the star, with a tying triple in the ninth and a winning home run in the 11th. His two RBIs in the clincher gave him a postseason record 21.

The Cardinals won their first championship since 2006, and gave La Russa his third World Series title. They got there by beating Philadelphia in the first round of the NL playoffs, capped by Carpenter outdueling Roy Halladay 1-0 in the deciding Game 5, and then topping Milwaukee in the NL championship series.

“I think the last month of the season, that’s where it started,” Pujols said. “Different guys were coming huge, getting big hits, and we carried that into the postseason and here we are, world champions.”

By the time Yadier Molina drew a bases-loaded walk from starter Matt Harrison and Rafael Furcal was hit by a pitch from Wilson in relief, the crowd began to sense a championship was near.

The Cardinals improved to 8-3 in Game 7s of the Series, more wins than any other club. Yet fans here know their history well, and were aware this game could go either way — Dizzy Dean and the Gas House Gang won 11-0 in 1934, but Whitey Herzog and his Cardinals lost 11-0 in 1985.

On this evening, all the stars aligned for St. Louis.

Starting in place of injured Matt Holliday, Craig hit his third homer of the Series and made a leaping catch at the top of the left field wall. Molina made another strong throw to nail a stray runner. And Carpenter steeled himself to pitch into the seventh, every bit an ace.

“It was in our grasp and we didn’t get it,” Washington said, referring to Game 6. “Tonight we fought hard for it and the Cardinals got it.”

Pujols went 0 for 2, walked and was hit by a pitch in what could have been his last game with the Cardinals. Many think the soon-to-be free agent will remain in St. Louis.

“You know what? I’m not even thinking about that. I’m thinking about, you know, we’re the world champions and I’m going to celebrate and whenever that time comes, you know, then we’ll deal with it,” he said.

Pujols did plenty of damage. His three-homer job in Game 3 was the signature performance of his career and perhaps the greatest hitting show in postseason history.

Dismissed by some as a dull Series even before it began because it lacked the big-market glamour teams, it got better inning by inning. Plus, a postseason first: A bullpen telephone mixup played a prominent role.

“I told you it was going to be a great series, and it was,” Texas slugger Josh Hamilton said.

“I don’t care what other people remember. We fell a little bit short. Hats off to the Cards, they did a great job, especially last night. It was actually fun to watch and fun to see. You hate it but it happened.”

Craig hit a solo home run in the third, an opposite field fly to right that carried into the Cardinals bullpen and got their relievers dancing. The super-sub put St. Louis ahead 3-2 with his third homer of the Series. He was in the lineup only because Holliday sprained his right wrist on a pickoff play a night earlier and was replaced on the roster.

By then, the largest crowd at 6-year-old Busch Stadium was buzzing. The fans seemed a bit drained much earlier, maybe worn out from the previous night.

They grew hush in the first when Hamilton and Michael Young hit consecutive RBI doubles. Texas might have gotten more, but Ian Kinsler strayed too far off first base and was trapped by Molina’s rocket throw.

Freese changed the mood in a hurry as St. Louis tied it in the bottom half. Pujols and Lance Berkman drew two-out walks and pitching coach Mike Maddux trotted to the mound while Freese stepped in to a standing ovation.

Freese rewarded his family and a ballpark full of new friends by lining a full-count floater to the wall in left center for a two-run double. Harrison was in trouble, and Wilson began warming up after only 23 pitches.

Carpenter wasn’t sharp at the outset, either. All over the strike zone, he started seven of the first 10 batters with balls. Pitching coach Dave Duncan made a visit in the second to check on the tall righty, lingering for a few extra words.

“I was hoping to have an opportunity to go ahead and pitch in that game and fortunately it worked out,” Carpenter said. “It started off a little rough in the first. But I was able to collect myself, make some pitches and our guys did an awesome job to battle back. And I mean, it’s just amazing.”

— Associated Press —

For Edwin Jackson, the mound in Texas really was the wild, wild West.

Jackson walked seven — the most in a World Series game in 14 years — and Mike Napoli followed the last two free passes with a three-run homer on reliever Mitchell Boggs’ first pitch to give the Rangers and Derek Holland a 4-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night.

Instead of sending Chris Carpenter to the mound with a chance to clinch their 11th title, the Cardinals find themselves in the first World Series since 2003 that’s tied at two games apiece. That ensures a return to Busch Stadium for Game 6 on Wednesday night.

Holland allowed two hits in 8 1/3 innings and was pulled after walking Rafael Furcal. Neftali Feliz finished the two-hitter.

“Basically what happened is he just worked us over and shut us down,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

A night after tying World Series records with three home runs, five hits and six RBIs in the Cardinals’ 16-7 victory, Albert Pujols was 0 for 4 — batting with no one on base his first three times up, then flying out with two on in the ninth.

While Pujols was a non-factor, Lance Berkman went 2 for 3 and improved to 7 for 15 (.467) in this World Series and 12 for 28 (.429) overall in Series play, including his appearance for Houston in 2005.

In a rematch of the opener, won by the Cardinals 3-2, Carpenter starts Game 5 on Monday night and C.J. Wilson goes for Texas.

“If you want to choose somebody from the St. Louis Cardinals to pitch that game, it’s Chris,” La Russa said. “I mean, there isn’t anything about pitching on the road in a hostile environment. I think he actually likes it, pitches better. His problem is going to be good hitters, and he’ll have to pitch effectively. But we love playing behind him because we know he’s going to compete as hard as he can. He’s got a lot to compete with.”

Twenty-two of 40 teams to win Game 4 and tie the Series at 2 have gone on to the championship. The Series had not been 2-all since 2003, when the Marlins overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat the Yankees in six games.

Jackson has had a wild streak throughout his career. He walked eight in his third major league start, at San Francisco in 2003. He then matched that on June 25 last year, when he finished one shy of the record for walks in a no-hitter as he pitched Arizona over Tampa Bay 1-0.

Hits weren’t much of a problem. Jackson allowed three in 5 1/3 innings — including none after the second. He went to three-ball counts on four of his first 10 batters with the help of some long outs — four flyouts at or just in front of the warning track. He threw just 59 of 109 pitches for strikes.

“I thought he pitched really well,” La Russa said. “He missed a few times, walked a couple guys, but he kept making pitches. Overall I give him a huge plus for keeping us in the game.”

The seven walks were three shy of the Series record, set by the New York Yankees’ Bill Bevens in Game 4 in 1947 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. No one had walked seven in the Series since Florida’s Livan Hernandez had eight in Game 5 in 1997 against Cleveland.

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre made a leaping catch on Furcal’s liner to start the game. It turned out to be that kind of night for the Cardinals.

Texas, which has not lost consecutive games since Aug. 23-25 against Boston, was ahead after 10 pitches from Jackson. That ended the Cardinals’ streak of scoring first in 10 straight postseason games, one short of the record set by Detroit from 1972-84.

Elvis Andrus singled sharply to left with one out and Josh Hamilton, just 1 for 12 (.083) coming in, doubled down the right field line. A pair of walks loaded the bases with two outs, and David Murphy flied out to Matt Holliday a couple of steps in front of the left field warning track, ending a 25-pitch inning.

Mitch Moreland, inserted at first base after Napoli’s struggles on Saturday, wound up helping to save a run in the second. Berkman doubled to the right-center gap with one out and, after David Freese struck out, Yadier Molina hit a grounder off the front of the mound. Second baseman Ian Kinsler ranged to the shortstop side of the mound, gloved the ball and made an off-balance throw to first, where Moreland scooped it.

With his pitch count climbing, Jackson walked Nelson Cruz and Murphy with one out in the sixth. Napoli greeted Boggs by sending a 95 mph fastball just inside the left-field foul pole, about 10 rows deep. In their first-row seats, former President George W. Bush and Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan exchanged a high-five. On the mound, Boggs grimaced.

“Well, it looked like it was a bad decision. Missed with his pitch,” La Russa said. “He just missed and Napoli didn’t.”

— Associated Press —

Jason Motte stood in front of his locker in the quiet Cardinals clubhouse and said the same thing over and over: “I didn’t do my job.”

Three outs from taking a 2-0 World Series lead to Texas, St. Louis instead finds itself tied with the Rangers at a game apiece.

Motte allowed consecutive singles to open the ninth inning, and sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young lifted the Rangers to a 2-1 victory Thursday night.

“It was almost a great story for us,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “Turned out to be a greater one for them.”

In a virtual repeat of the opener, pinch-hitter Allen Craig put the Cardinals ahead with a seventh-inning single off Alexi Ogando.

St. Louis starter Jaime Garcia allowed three hits in seven shutout innings before Fernando Salas and Marc Rzepczynski combined for a hitless eighth. But a day after Motte finished off a 3-2 win with a 1-2-3 ninth, Ian Kinsler blooped a leadoff single to left, just beyond the reach of shortstop Rafael Furcal. Kinsler then stole second, narrowly beating Yadier Molina’s throw.

“I mean, my hand just barely got in there. It took everything I had,” Kinsler said. “Yadier made an unbelievable throw, quick, on the money, and I was just able to get my hand in there.”

Elvis Andrus, who saved a run in the fifth with an amazing glove flip from shortstop, singled to center for his first hit in seven at-bats in the Series. Kinsler took a wide turn, then retreated to third, and Andrus advanced when Jon Jay’s throw got past cutoff man Albert Pujols.

“It stinks. It’s one of those things,” Motte said. “I went out there and made a good pitch to Kinsler, and he did a good piece of hitting and got enough on it to get it out of the reach of Furcal. The next one, I threw another cutter, and it just wasn’t a good pitch. It moved, came back, just stayed middle and spun up there.”

More than an hour after the game, the three official scorers decided to charge Pujols with an error.

“I should have made a better throw right there. It was the big part of the game,” Jay said. “It was off-line a little bit.”

After making all the right moves in the opener, La Russa brought in lefty Arthur Rhodes to face Hamilton, who is hitless in 16 consecutive World Series at-bats dating to Game 3 against San Francisco last year. La Russa decided against an intentional walk.

“Load the bases, that’s a really difficult thing to do,” La Russa said. “I don’t think walking him there would have made it easier for us. I think it would have made it tougher.”

Hamilton, the reigning AL MVP, drove home Kinsler with a fly to right.

“It would have been a grounder if I would have kept it down,” Rhodes said.

Lance Lynn relieved, and Young hit a fly to center that scored Andrus with the go-ahead run.

Motte took the loss, and Mike Adams got the win with a scoreless eighth. Neftali Feliz pitched the ninth for the save, walking Molina before striking out Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker. Furcal flied out to end it.

“It’s baseball. That’s the way this game is,” Motte said. “You’re going to have good days, bad days.”

When the Series shifts to Texas on Saturday night, Matt Harrison starts Game 3 for the Rangers against Kyle Lohse. Derek Holland goes for Texas in Game 4 on Sunday and Edwin Jackson for the Cardinals.

While Pujols dropped to 0 for 6 in the Series and Matt Holliday fell to 1 for 6 (.167), David Freese sparked the Cardinals in the seventh when he singled with one out against Colby Lewis. Punto, the No. 8 batter, hit a single off the glove of Young — who played first only 36 times during the regular season.

That knocked out both starters, with Ogando coming in to face Craig for the second straight night.

Craig fouled off a pitch, then lined a single to right-center that sent Freese home and energized a sellout crowd of 47,288 at Busch Stadium.

“Kind of deja vu,” Craig said.

Two innings earlier, Furcal came up with two on and two outs and hit a one-hop smash to the shortstop side of second, but Andrus ranged over to make a diving stop. From his knees on the outfield grass, he flipped the ball with his glove to Kinsler, who just beat a sliding Garcia to second base.

“The play was ridiculous,” Kinsler said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

— Associated Press —

Nelson Cruz sprinted over to the foul line, desperately trying to run down Allen Craig’s tailing liner. The right fielder came up just short, and so did the Texas Rangers.

Craig’s pinch-hit drive landed an inch or two in front of Cruz’s outstretched glove for a go-ahead single off reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth inning that carried the St. Louis Cardinals over the Rangers 3-2 Wednesday in a chilly World Series opener.

On a night when all the runs were driven in with opposite-field hits to right, Lance Berkman put St. Louis ahead with a two-run single in the fourth against C.J. Wilson.

Rangers catcher Mike Napoli watched in dejection as Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday scored, but a few minutes later celebrated in the top of the fifth when he tied it 2-all with a two-run homer off Chris Carpenter.

While the Rangers’ bullpen couldn’t hold on, five St. Louis relievers combined for three innings of one-hit relief. Not that Texas didn’t have its chances — the Rangers were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Colby Lewis starts for the Rangers on Thursday night, trying to send the Series back to Texas tied at a game apiece.

Game 1 has been an indicator of success in recent decades: The winner has captured seven of the last eight titles, 12 of the last 14 and 19 of the last 23. In addition, the team hosting Game 1 has won 20 of the last 25 World Series.

A year after making their first World Series appearance, a five-game loss to the San Francisco Giants that opened with an 11-7 loss, the Rangers were back.

Taking over as ace after Cliff Lee left to sign with Philadelphia, Wilson dropped to 0-3 with a 7.17 ERA in four postseason starts this year, allowing three runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings with a career-high six walks — two of them intentional.

He prepared for the start by getting in a tank of liquid nitrogen at 295 degrees below zero — the treatment is said to aid recovery — but on a blustery, 49-degree night his walks and a key wild pitch got him into some hot spots.

He fell behind after bouncing a pitch in the fourth that hit three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols on the left foot. That started a streak of three bad pitches in a four-pitch span.

Wilson tried to go inside on Matt Holliday but left the next one over the plate, and Holliday hit an opposite-field double into the right-field corner as Pujols took third.

Then, with the count 1-0 to Berkman, Wilson tried to go inside again but allowed the ball to drift over the plate. Berkman went the other way and chopped the ball over first base and into right field as the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead. Wilson shook his head back and fourth as he walked back to the mound.

The lead was short-lived.

Adrian Beltre singled leading off the fifth and, one out later, Napoli turned on a high pitch and sent it about 10 rows deep into the right-field seats for his second home run of the postseason. A fired-up Carpenter had escaped a two-on, none-out jam in the second inning when Napoli hit into an inning-ending double play.

Pujols had Cardinals fans cheering in the top of the sixth when he slid to stop Michael Young’s grounder behind first and threw to Carpenter for the out, stranding Ian Kinsler at third.

Then in the bottom half, NLCS MVP David Freese hit an opposite-field double to right with one out and went to third on a wild pitch. Wilson struck out Yadier Molina, then pitched carefully to Nick Punto and walked him on four pitches.

Ogando relieved, and with many of the red-clad Cardinals fans standing and waving white towels, Craig sliced a 1-2 pitch down the right field line. Cruz, the ALCS MVP, came oh-so-close to making the sliding catch, but the ball bounced just in front of his glove as Freese scored. Texas was lucky that the ball struck Cruz on a foot; otherwise, it could have rolled to the fence.

Carpenter became the first St. Louis starter to reach the sixth inning since the division series. He got the win, allowing two runs and five hits in six innings with four strikeouts and one walk. Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes and Jason Motte followed, with Motte getting three outs for his fifth postseason save.

With one out in the ninth, Beltre was called out on a grounder to third on a ball that appeared to bounce off his foot and could have been ruled foul. The call didn’t go the Rangers’ way.

It was that kind of night.

— Associated Press —

An afterthought in early September, the St. Louis Cardinals are taking their wild ride all the way to the World Series.

David Freese hit a three-run homer in the first and manager Tony La Russa turned again to his brilliant bullpen for seven sturdy innings as St. Louis captured its 18th pennant with a 12-6 victory over the bumbling Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday night.

Albert Pujols and the wild-card Cardinals took out the heavily favored Phillies in the first round, then dispatched the division-rival Brewers on their own turf in Game 6 of the NL championship series.

Looking for its second title in six seasons, St. Louis opens the World Series at home Wednesday night with ace Chris Carpenter on the mound against the AL champion Texas Rangers.

“I mean, you could have never known,” Pujols said.

Trailing by 10½ games in the wild-card race on Aug. 25, the Cardinals surged down the stretch and took advantage of a monumental collapse by Atlanta to win a playoff spot on the final night of the regular season.

Now, bolstered by a group of no-name relievers who keep answering La Russa’s call, the Cardinals are back in the World Series for the first time since beating Detroit in 2006.

What a relief!

“Well, it was crazy,” outfielder Matt Holliday said. “We had a lot of adversity, but we found a way.”

It was a disappointing end to a scintillating season for Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and the NL Central champion Brewers, who finished with a franchise-record 96 wins, six games ahead of St. Louis.

Baseball’s best home team collapsed in the NLCS, though, losing twice at Miller Park in an error-filled flop. It was likely Fielder’s final game with the Brewers, too. He can become a free agent after the season.

Rafael Furcal and Pujols hit solo homers off Chris Narveson and St. Louis built a 9-4 lead by the time the bullpen took over for Edwin Jackson in the third inning.

The group of Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte allowed two runs the rest of the way. For the series, St. Louis relievers finished 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA over 28 2-3 innings.

The biggest scare came when Pujols appeared shaken up after tagging out Braun in the fifth inning when he fell hard on his right forearm on a close play at first base. The three-time MVP was slow to get up, but stayed in the game.

St. Louis went 15-5 over the final 20 games to clinch a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. The Cardinals needed Carpenter to throw a shutout to beat the Phillies 1-0 in Game 5 of the NLDS, but took control of this series beginning in Game 2 by jumping out to early leads and letting their bullpen lead the way.

La Russa called on his relievers 28 times in the NLCS and Jackson’s start was the shortest of the postseason for the Cardinals rotation, which finished the NLCS with a 7.66 ERA. St. Louis became the first team to win a postseason series without a starter reaching the sixth inning, according to STATS LLC.

Picked as the NLCS MVP, Freese gave others credit.

“I wish we could make eight or nine of these and give them to our bullpen. They’re the reason why we won this series,” he said.

Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and Jonathan Lucroy all homered for the Brewers, who won a major league-most 57 times at Miller Park this season and four straight in the postseason before losing Game 2 to the Cardinals.

It was the two ugly defensive performances that will likely linger for Milwaukee, which committed four errors in a 7-1 loss in Game 5 and added three more in Game 6.

“You can’t get away with mistakes to them and we made way too many mistakes,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

The Brewers’ biggest hitters — Braun, Fielder and Weeks — finished 1 for 12. Fielder, the All-Star game MVP and the reason St. Louis will start at home on Wednesday, received a standing ovation in his final at-bat in the eighth. He grounded out and slowly walked back to the dugout with his head down.

Struggling starter Shaun Marcum never really gave Milwaukee a chance and was hurt by defensive plays that weren’t ruled errors.

In the first, Jon Jay singled with one out and stole second when Weeks couldn’t hold onto Lucroy’s throw. Marcum believed he had strike three on Pujols, who ended up walking.

Lance Berkman singled for the second time in 18 career at-bats against Marcum to drive in the first run, and center fielder Nyjer Morgan made an ill-advised throw to third, with Pujols moving from first to third, that let Berkman advance.

Marcum saved a run by grabbing Matt Holliday’s grounder and flipping it out of his glove to Lucroy to get Pujols at the plate, but Freese homered on the next pitch to make it 4-0 and extend his postseason hitting streak to 10 games.

Marcum finished the first, ending his postseason 0-3 with a 14.90 ERA.

Furcal homered off Chris Narveson with two outs in the second and Pujols followed with a drive to left field to give St. Louis a 6-4 lead.

Holliday then singled, Freese doubled and the Brewers intentionally walked Yadier Molina with one out. Nick Punto hit a sacrifice fly and pinch hitter Allen Craig singled in two more runs off LaTroy Hawkins to make it 9-4.

Yuniesky Betancourt’s RBI double in the fourth cut the lead to 9-5, but Milwaukee fell apart in the fifth with three errors in a span of two plays.

First, Hart bobbled Freese’s single in right field, allowing Holliday to reach third.

Holliday scored on the next play when third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. committed two errors. First, he booted Molina’s grounder and then flipped the ball out of his glove through Weeks’ legs at second.

Pinch hitter Adron Chambers’ sacrifice fly gave St. Louis an 11-5 lead in the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Braun’s groundout cut the lead to 11-6, but the focus was on Pujols when he was slow to get up.

La Russa came out to check on his star, who gripped his right forearm and had a brief limp, but stayed in the game. He looked better, contributing a two-out RBI single in the eighth for the final margin.

Jackson allowed Hart and Weeks to lead off the first two innings with homers and Lucroy added a two-run shot to cut the lead to 5-4 after the second. St. Louis answered back with four more runs, keyed when Jackson was pulled for Craig, who delivered the two-run single.

Salas caught a break in the third when Jay made a leaping catch of Fielder’s drive at the wall in right-center. Jay added another spectacular grab, crashing into the padding in the ninth with Motte on the mound.

One out later, the celebration was on.

— Associated Press —

The bumbling Brewers made four errors that led to three unearned runs, and the St. Louis Cardinals survived a short start by Jaime Garcia to beat Milwaukee 7-1 Friday night and take a 3-2 lead in the NL championship series.

Yadier Molina and Matt Holliday had three hits each for St. Louis, which burst to a 3-0 lead in the second when Molina doubled in a run and third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. allowed Garcia’s grounder to go through his legs. Holliday capped the scoring with a two-run double in the eighth.

“We just keep finding ways to win,” Holliday said. “It’s a team, it’s a group effort. It’s never one guy.”

Milwaukee’s infield nearly had a cycle of errors, with second baseman Rickie Weeks and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt also committing miscues along with reliever Marco Estrada. Weeks had committed the Brewers’ only two errors in the first four games of the series.

“You give these guys extra outs and they are going to hurt you,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

The Cardinals have won 14 straight games on getaway days, a run that began on Aug. 7 at Florida. The win gave players another opportunity to chant “Happy Flight! Happy Flight!”

St. Louis can wrap up the best-of-seven series and its 18th NL pennant on Sunday in Milwaukee. Edwin Jackson goes for the Cardinals against Shaun Marcum in a rematch of pitchers from Game 2, won by St. Louis 12-3 as neither starter received a decision.

The NL winner hosts the World Series opener against Detroit or Texas on Wednesday.

“We’re having a good series right now and, hopefully, we can do it for one more game,” Molina said.

Milwaukee had not made more than three errors in a game during the regular season, but the Brewers’ sloppiness reached a near-record level. Milwaukee was one shy of the LCS record for errors in a game, shared by the 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers and 1976 New York Yankees, according to STATS LLC.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had a quick hook once again. Garcia opened with four scoreless innings, then allowing three hits and a sacrifice in a span of four at-bats in the fifth, with Corey Hart singling in a run. With two and on and two outs, Octavio Dotel relieved and struck out Braun.

Dotel (1-0) struck out two in 1 1/3 hitless innings, combining with three other relievers for 4 1/3 innings of scoreless, two-hit relief. Jason Motte got four outs for his second save of the series, leaving Cardinals relievers 2-0 with a 1.66 ERA in 22 2/3 innings. St. Louis starters are 1-2 with a 6.04 ERA.

Only one St. Louis starter has lasted long enough to qualify for a victory, with Chris Carpenter working five innings in Game 3. The previous team to have a starter not pitch into the sixth in the first five games of a postseason series was the 1984 San Diego Padres in the World Series, according to STATS.

With Milwaukee down 5-1 and trying to rally with two on in the eighth, lefty Marc Rzepczynski relieved and struck out Prince Fielder.

Fielder is 0 for 4 with four strikeouts and two walks against Rzepczynski.

Zack Greinke (1-1) left pitches over the plate in some key spots and allowed five runs — just two earned — and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with no strikeouts and two walks.

Hart had three hits, breaking out from a 1 for 12 start to the series.

St. Louis had been hitless in 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position — and 22 at-bats with runners on base — before Molina’s RBI double off the right-field fence. Hart just missed on a leaping attempt at the right field fence.

Hairston saved at least one run at third base with a spectacular diving catch to his left on Nick Punto’s low liner for the second out. But when he botched Garcia’s easy grounder, St. Louis was up 3-0.

Garcia’s RBI groundout made it 4-0 in he fourth, the first RBI by a Cardinals pitcher in the postseason since Jeff Suppan homered in the 2006 NLCS against the Mets.

Albert Pujols had an RBI single in the sixth to chase Greinke.

— Associated Press —

Power pitching often dominates in the postseason. Soft tosses by Randy Wolf got the Milwaukee Brewers back to even in the NL championship series.

The 35-year-old lefty outfoxed the St. Louis Cardinals for seven innings to earn his first postseason win and the Brewers got two more hits from Ryan Braun in a 4-2 victory Thursday night that evened the NL championship series at 2-all.

“It was a big feeling just to be back out there again after my last start,” said Wolf, hit hard by Arizona to force a deciding Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs. “Just to be able to get another opportunity to pitch again was important.

“You know, I’ll be honest with you, the day after the Diamondbacks start, I didn’t eat or shower that day,” he said.”

Flipping some pitches in the mid-60s mph, Wolf allowed two runs and six hits, striking out six with one walk.

Matt Holliday and Allen Craig homered for the Cardinals, representing their only runs in the last 16 innings.

“I think it’s classic because playing each other so many times, we’re dead even,” manager Tony La Russa said. “It comes down to that day, who makes the pitch.”

Francisco Rodriguez allowed a hit in the eighth and John Axford finished for his second save of the series and third this postseason.

The Brewers ended an eight-game road losing streak in the postseason dating to the 1982 World Series opener at St. Louis. And Wolf ended a lengthy drought of his own — before Thursday, his 342 starts without a postseason victory were the most among active pitchers.

Game 4 loser Kyle Lohse moves to second on the list at 298 starts, trailing only Ted Lilly’s 318.

Jaime Garcia faces Zack Greinke for the second time in the series in Game 5 Friday night. Either way, the NLCS will be decided back at Miller Park.

“We’re pretty much the only team that’s played pretty well in Milwaukee. Flip the page and hopefully come back to tomorrow. It’s a great series. Nobody is going to run away,” Cardinals star Albert Pujols said.

Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled twice with an RBI and Wolf hit one of the Brewers’ five doubles. Braun is batting .471 (16 for 34) in the postseason with two homers and nine RBIs.

The Cardinals needed more heavy duty from their bullpen, too, after Lohse, pitching on 12 days’ rest, failed to make it out of the fifth.

“I’m not going to blame it on the layoff,” Lohse said. “We’re professionals and we’ve got get the job done. Tonight, we didn’t do it.”

Pujols was a quiet 1 for 4 for St. Louis, which was 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and is 0 for 15 after the first inning of Game 3.

“They have good pitching, but we have good pitching, too,” Hairston said. “They’ve been good for us all year long.”

Wolf kept the Cardinals off-balance with soft tosses and retired 13 of his last 15 hitters in his fourth career postseason start. It was a huge improvement from Game 4 of the NL division series at Arizona in which he surrendered seven runs in three innings.

Wolf also struggled in his last two regular season starts, allowing 10 runs in 11 2/3 innings.

“Regardless of how the game went, I was satisfied with the fact that I was going to have that opportunity,” Wolf said. “It’s kind of a weird word, but it’s redemption to go back out there.”

For the fourth straight game, the Cardinals had to lean heavily on their relievers. Lohse sailed through three innings and then allowed three doubles and three runs to his last eight hitters, and was charged with three runs in 4 1/3 innings.

St. Louis relievers have worked 17 1/3 innings in the series.

Two of La Russa’s moves paid off. Bumped down one spot to fifth, Holliday hit his first postseason homer and doubled.

Craig started in place of Lance Berkman, who was 3 for 32 lifetime against Wolf and had a minor right thigh bruise from getting hit by a pitch in Game 3. Craig hit his first career postseason homer made it 2-0 in the third.

The Brewers tied it in the fourth with their first runs since the third inning of Game 3 on doubles by Prince Fielder and Jerry Hairston Jr. and an RBI single by Yuniesky Betancourt.

Lohse was pulled after Nyjer Morgan doubled to start the fifth and advanced on a groundout, the heart of the order coming up. Braun’s single off Mitchell Boggs put the Brewers in front although second baseman Ryan Theriot’s sprawling stop transformed Fielder’s smash into an inning-ending double play.

Rickie Weeks singled and Hairston doubled again to open the sixth, and the Brewers soon had a two-run cushion. George Kottaras hit a grounder against a drawn-in infield off Arthur Rhodes, and Theriot bobbled the ball on a short hop for an error.

The Cardinals’ streak of scoring in the first inning ended at five games when they went down in order against Wolf, but they hurt the left-hander with opposite-field power the next two innings. Wolf fell behind the count to six of the first 14 hitters and the Cardinals were 4 for 5 with two homers, a double, single and walk.

— Associated Press —