St.Louis Cardinals: 2013 World Series Youth Leading The Way
By Chris Lacey
October 14, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) pitches the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game three of the National League Championship Series baseball game at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The St.Louis Cardinals just finished winning the National League pennant and have one more goal in mind to cap off their strong and memorable season.
They will be playing in their 4th World Series in ten seasons with them winning it all in 2006 and 2011. The Cardinals are a model team and provide a great example of how to build a winning club.
It starts with the young players on the team mixed in with some veterans that complete this team. They are very familiar with the Boston Red Sox, as they won the World Series in four games against them in 2004.
St.Louis is a team that has a good offense with them scoring 783 runs this season, but their pitching is just as good. They held the Los Angeles Dodgers to just 13 runs in the NLCS and the one pitcher that performed well was Michael Wacha.
The young right-hander allowed only seven hits and no runs in two starts spread across 13.2 innings and this resulted in him being named NLCS MVP. He became just the second rookie pitcher to win that honor.
The other part of the rotation that been integral to their success is Adam Wainwright. He’s the anchor and leads by example in his approach to each start. Wainwright has the mindset of finishing what he starts with him throwing five complete games this season.
The Red Sox will present a great challenge to the Cardinals because of their offense. Boston knows how to score runs, as they led the Major Leagues with 853 runs scored.
The other part of this is that they don’t give away at-bats and make opposing pitchers work. Boston also had good pitching in the ALCS where they limited the Detroit Tigers offense to only 14 runs scored in the series.
One pitcher that could be very important for Boston is their closer, Koji Uehara. Uehara was near invincible in the regular season with a 1.09 ERA and he struck out 101 batters in 74.1 innings.
He’s carried that dominance in the postseason where he’s just allowed one run in nine innings.
St.Louis also has a good closer that stays true to their youth movement in Trevor Rosenthal. He didn’t start closing games until the end of the season and has not looked back since.
He struck out 108 batters in 75.1 innings by utilizing a blazing fastball that opposing batters can’t touch. It’s pretty safe to say that if one of these teams have a lead in the ninth inning, scoring runs will not be easy against either pitcher.
The interesting part about this World Series is that both teams led their respective leagues in both runs scored and run differential.
I predict that the Cardinals will win this series in six games on the strength of their pitching and good offense.