Why Texas Will Win Series
By Lew Freedman
When a team makes a repeat appearance on the largest stage in its sport, there is always talk about how being there once shook the nerves out of the players and how they adapted to the hype because they had lived through it all before.
By that standard of reasoning, then Butler would have won the NCAA title in 2011, and the Buffalo Bills would have won a Super Bowl instead of losing four of them.
Yes, the Texas Rangers are back in the World Series for the second year in a row and after losing in 2010 to the San Francisco Giants they should be even hungrier. Well, maybe yes and maybe no, but plain old desire won’t get it done against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. The Rangers will win the Series because they are the better team.
To date in the playoffs, with the exception of the occasional Chris Carpenter gem, the Cardinals pitching has been surviving on a wing and a prayer; the starting pitchers’ wings and manager Tony La Russa’s prayers. The Cardinals have rarely played simple games where the starter goes seven or eight innings and a wave to the bullpen for a closer helps finish things off. Nope. The Cardinals have pitching by committee it seems. Someone has to start, but that doesn’t mean he is going to stay around very long.
We’re likely to see as much of Lance Lynn, Octavio Dotel, Fernando Salas, Arthur Rhodes and Jason Motte as Edwin Jackson, Kyle Lohse or Jaime Garcia. But I don’t think it’s going to matter too much how much we see of any or all of them. I think the Rangers’ bats are going to be the difference makers in the Series.
The Cardinals’ pitching staff has all the makings of a patched-together, all-hands-on-deck outfit when usually in the playoffs you need stoppers. When he’s on, Carpenter fills the role and he surely was that guy in the deciding Division Series game against the Phillies when he beat them 1-0. It’s not clear if he can repeat that kind of showing and in a seven-game series he can’t do it alone anyway.
I see the Rangers coming out clubbing, making La Russa stretch the bullpen. Texas will score early and often. Nelson Cruz is on fire. Josh Hamilton is a big-time player. Ian Kinsler, Mike Napoli and Adrian Beltre come through with big hits. The Cardinals have been making their share of mischief at the plate, too, but I see the Rangers doing everything a little bit better. If St. Louis scores five, the Rangers will score six. If St. Louis scores six, the Rangers will score seven.
I picture a high-scoring series with four-hour games, but the Rangers being kings of the baseball world when it’s all over.