Improbable Run Ends With a Championship

By - Kris Fletcher

In one of the wildest, most improbable championship runs in baseball history, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 of the World Series on Friday night to win the storied club's eleventh world championship.

Photo by: Getty Images

The Cardinals were 10 1/2 games out of a playoff spot on August 25th, and played a month of virtual must-win games before finally earning a postseason berth on the very last day of the regular season.

They entered the postseason with the fewest wins, 90, of any playoff team. They trailed their opponents in all three series, and were even down to their final strike -- twice, in Game 6 on Thursday night.

Yet, here they are. World Series champs.

"Has there ever been a better team in St. Louis that has won a championship?" outfielder Lance Berkman said. "I wasn't here in the '60s or '80s when they won championships, but my goodness, what a team this is."

The loss was a bitter ending for a Rangers club that was looking to make amends for falling to the San Francisco Giants in last year's Fall Classic. They had won two games in a row, and on Thursday were twice just a strike away from winning the franchise's first title.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Photo by: Matt Slocum

"If there's one thing that happened in this World Series that I'll look back on, it's being so close," said manager Ron Washington. "Just having one pitch to be made, one out to be gotten and it could have been a different story. But when you are a champion, you keep fighting and the Cardinals fought and came back. They got us yesterday, and they beat us again tonight."

It was the first time Texas had lost consecutive games since August 23rd-25th.

Third baseman David Freese was named the Most Valuable Player of the series, hitting .348 with 7 RBI. His lone home run was by far the biggest homer of the series, a game-winning walk-off shot in Game 6.

He becomes the fourth St. Louis player to win the award, joining Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson in 1964 and 1967, catcher Darrell Porter in 1982 and utility infielder David Eckstein in 2006.