The St. Louis Cardinals joined the New York Yankees and Oakland A's as post-season opponents that found Kenny Rogers unbreakable on Sunday night in Comerica Park in Detroit.
Rogers continued his mastery over any and all comers in an impressive eight-inning, two-hit performance, stretching his postseason scoreless inning mark to 23, second only to the legendary Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants in 1905.
Sparking an early inning interest in a mystery substance on his pitching hand determined to be dirt mixed with rosin by home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, who ordered Rogers to wash it off, he spent the rest of the game throwing to spots just out of reach of Cardinal bats.
Happy to get out of Detroit with a split, the Redbirds head home to new Busch Stadium, a venue they enjoyed to the tune of 49-31 during the 2006 season. They sending their ace, defending Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter to the hill in Game 3. In Game 4 they get to start NLCS MVP Jeff Suppan, so the Cards hope to put Detroit into a hole they can't escape before rookie Anthony Reyes tries to duplicate his Game 1 magic.
Detroit counters with Nate Robertson and Jeremy Bonderman in Games 3 and 4. Either one is capable of slamming the door on the National League champions with a strong performance. Manager Jim Leyland is hopeful at least one of them can steal a win from the potent one-two punch of Carpenter and Suppan for the Tigers. Going into Game 5 down 3-1 is not in Leyland's plans.
St. Louis staggered into the postseason on the heels of a horrible September, but they've shown they belong by easily beating the San Diego Padres and scrapping out a seven game working class win over the New York Mets in the National League Championship.
One thing's for sure: the weather will be cold and the competition heated as the St. Louis Cardinals seek to bring yet another World Series trophy home to Cardinal nation.
The young Detroit Tigers team is hoping for the ghosts of 1968 to come along and help them keep St. Louis waiting another year.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Very well-written article. I agree that both teams need to win at least one of the next two in order to have a chance...