The St. Louis Cardinals are the 2011 World Series Champions after beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 on Friday night.
After overtaking Atlanta on the last day of the regular season, the Cards knocked out the 102-win Phillies in the NLDS and then the Brewers in the NLCS. It was the Cardinals’ first championship since 2006, and gave La Russa his third World Series title.
“It’s hard to explain how this happened,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.
Texas was one strike away from its first championship on two occasions in Game 6, only to have the Cardinals come back and force a Game 7 on Freese’s walkoff homer in the 11th inning.
Freese, who was named World Series MVP, knocked in a pair of runs in game seven and batted .348 for the series, with seven RBIs, three doubles and one big homer. Freese also drove in 21 runs during the postseason, shattering the previous record.
It was a heck of a series…
The Mets hot stove season now begins in earnest and Jose Reyes can file for free agency tonight. Sandy Alderson has until 11:59 PM ET on Wednesday night to exclusively negotiate with the NL Batting Champion, but trust me, I doubt they’ll even make an offer. Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog heard from team sources that the Mets will only offer Reyes, 28, no more than a four year deal between $60 and $80 million. Four years? Really? Three months after trading the greatest center fielder in franchise history, the Mets will now do the same with their best shortstop ever and one of the greatest homegrown talents they have ever developed.
