MLB-WORLD SERIES GAME 7
     Cardiac Cards sit atop baseball world
     ST. LOUIS. (AP) – The cardiac St. Louis Cardinals are World
Series champions for the 11th time after beating the Texas Rangers
6-2 in Game 7 of the 107th World Series. It’s their second World
Series title in six years.
     Cardinals’ ace Chris Carpenter got the win. He was pitching on
three days’ rest and went six innings, allowing two runs on six
hits, striking out five. Four relievers followed Carpenter with
Jason Motte (maht) getting the save with a scoreless ninth. Motte
was six-for-six in save opportunities in the postseason.
     The Cards rallied to win the final two games of the series,
falling behind in both those must-win games. But that just capped a
series of comebacks for St. Louis, which was written off by most
experts before putting on a dramatic late-season run.
     The World Series triumph ends a wicked two-month run for the
Cards, who were 10-1/2 games out of the playoffs in late August.
They made the playoffs on the final day of the season as the wild
card. They needed five games to beat Philadelphia in the first
round, went six against Milwaukee in the NL championship series and
went the distance against the Rangers. Texas failed in its second
straight trip to the Fall Classic and has never won a World Series.
     Cards manager Tony La Russa won his third World Series title. He
won in 1989 with Oakland in the American League, and with St. Louis
in 2006 and this season.
    
     MLB-WORLD SERIES-MVP
     Freese named MVP for heroics, dramatics
     ST. LOUIS (AP) – St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese,
the hometown boy made good, is the MVP of the World Series. He hit
a two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 and batted .348 with
a homer and seven RBIs for the Series.
     Freese is the sixth player to win the NLCS MVP and World Series
MVP in the same year. He had a record 21 RBIs in the postseason.
     His two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 tied the game
at 2-2. After the Cards were down to their final strike in Game 6,
Freese was the hero of that wild 10-9 Cards victory, hitting a
walkoff home run in the 11th inning that forced Game 7.
     Freese got some competition in the hero department from Allen
Craig, whose pinch-hit single delivered the victory in the opening
game of the World Series. Craig hit an opposite field home run in
the third inning for the go-ahead run. Craig also saved a run in
the sixth when he made a leaping catch to rob Nelson Cruz of a home
run.