A team wins “easy” when it pitches superbly, and the other team throws the ball away so runs score. That is the story of Game Two of this World Series. The Cardnals used three pitchers in this game, Michael Wacha started and gave up two runs in the sixth by walking Justin Pedroia before David Ortiz homered over the fence to left. Wacha is 4-0 in postseason play and rarely allows this sort of event to happen as his previous 18 1/3 innings had been scoreless. He was followed by Carlos Martinez who got six outs, three by strikeouts in the seventh and eighth innings before Trevor Rosenthal struck out three Red Sox on eleven pitches in the ninth to end the game. It was easy. Wacha and Martinez are twenty-two years old, Rosenthal is twenty-three.

The four Cardinal’s runs were scored in the fourth on a Matt Holliday triple and a Yadier Molina ground out. Then in the seventh, it was really interesting. After David Freese walked with one out, and Jon Jay singled to right, moving Freese to second and causing the removal of Red Sox Pitcher, John Lackey, for Craig Brelsow. Pete Kozma pinch ran for Freese at second and he and Jay then stole third and second. I was watching this and I noted that Kozma did not have a big lead off of second. When he and Jay ran, I was startled and so was Red Sox catcher Saltalamachia,  who bobbled the pitch and couldn’t make a throw. Breslow then walked Daniel Descalso to load the bases with one out. Matt Carpenther then hit  a sacrifice fly to left that scored Kozma and,  ultimalely, Jay, as the throw from the outfielder was way off line and to the catcher’s right. Instead of getting in front of the throw,(which had no chance of getting Kozma) to keep Jay in place at second, he let it go past as he merely reached across his body to snare the throw. It was fielded by pitcher Breslow, backing up the play. Jay saw this and took off for third. Now experienced baseball people cringe whenever a pitcher has to make a 120 foot throw on level ground. These are people who throw downhill, and only sixty feet, to earn a living. So Breslow, on level ground, threw the ball over the thirdbaseman and into the stands, scoring Jay for the go-ahead third run. Daniel Decalso had been watching this from first base, a great vantage point, by the way, and started running and ended up on third. He scored on Carlos Beltran’s single. 4-2 Cardinals. Then that young fellow Martinez came in to pitch the seventh, and you already know the outcome of that story.

This was the second game of a seven game series. They now play three in St. Louis, and we will either have a champion or a team with a 3-2 lead going back to Fenway Park for the Halloween game. The homefield advantage is real, but the home team must win and the Red Sox split. Now the Cardinals have the advantage of playing in St. Louis against the lesser lights of the Red Sox rotation and there will be no DH. The Cardinals just may win three. We’ll see. As I told a fellow earlier, I like the Red Sox but I have learned not to bet against the Cardinals, the best organization in the game.