Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The St. Louis Cardinals players must have switched bodies right before the first game of the World Series. That is the only way to explain what happened where they committed three errors in the game and lost Game 1 by a score of 8-1.
The biggest one was in the first inning of the game that led to three runs for the Boston Red Sox that came off the bat of Mike Napoli with a double.
Then in the second Dustin Pedroia hit a single that scored another run and David Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to score one more run. Ortiz was not finished with a two-run home run in the seventh and Xander Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly in the eight to end the scoring for Boston.
The lone run for the Cardinals came from a towering home run by Matt Holliday in the ninth.
Pete Kozma is one of their better defenders, so when he makes two errors something must be up. St. Louis as a team is sound defensively and it was a shock how they played.
The defense also had an impact on the pitching as well. Adam Wainwright was forced to throw plenty of pitches and his pitch count rose quickly. One thing that he did was odd is walk the first batter he faced.
That was a sign of worse things to come in the game. He finished with five innings pitched and gave up five runs, with three being earned.
Boston showed great patience at the plate and just waited to get the pitch they were looking for.
If you think it could not get any worse for the Cardinals they may have lost outfielder Carlos Beltran. He had to leave the game early after taking away a Grand Slam from Ortiz by making a great catch in right field.
He had x-rays on his ribs and they came back negative with him being listed day-to-day. He will be a game-time decision for Game 2 and if he can’t play then Shane Robinson will probably get the start in his absence.
The Cardinals played horribly but it’s only one loss. Mike Matheny will have his team ready for Game 2 and also Michael Wacha is pitching. So be on alert for a possible no-hitter.