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		Cardinals finish off Rangers to win 11th world championship By Joseph Hawkes-Beamon October 28, 2011

	St. Louis – Despite twice being one strike away from elimination the night before, the St. Louis Cardinals are the World Series champions for 2011 after winning Game 7, 6-2, over the Texas Rangers on Friday in front of 47,399 screaming members of Red Bird Nation. The Cardinals won the first World Series Game 7 in nine years and brought home the 11th World Series championship in franchise history. They triumphed behind six-plus impressive innings from ace Chris Carpenter, more big hits by David Freese and Allen Craig, and a return to form by a bullpen that had sprung some leaks lately. This team lost their top starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright, before the first Spring Training game was played. They dealt without key players like Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols and Freese for significant stretches of the season. They were 10 1/2 games out of the Wild Card in late August and seemingly left for dead. Carpenter fell behind early on a walk and a pair of doubles, and that was the last time anything went the Rangers' way. St. Louis responded immediately, behind Freese -- of course. Matt Harrison walked a pair of batters with two outs in the bottom of the first, and Freese doubled to center to tie the score. Two innings later, Craig hit a solo homer that put St. Louis ahead for good with yet another go-ahead hit. By then, Carpenter was settling in. He made it through the third and fourth without a hit, worked around a single in the fifth and finished the sixth thanks to a home-run-stealing catch from Craig in left field. It was never easy, never predictable. And yet it ended in a title. Sure, the Cardinals really weren’t comfortable until Yadier Molina's RBI single provided a little breathing room in the seventh. But for one night, the Cardinals and their fans got to enjoy the moment that everyone wants to experience one time or another in their life: a champion. That was thanks in large part to Carpenter, who did hero's work. Pitching on three days' rest for the second time in his career -- the first, in the National League Division Series against the Phillies, didn't go so well -- he pitched six-plus excellent innings for his second win of the series. The Cardinals improved to 8-3 in seven-game World Series, and closed out their second title at the current Busch Stadium. It's the third world championship for manager Tony La Russa, who won a title in Oakland in 1989, and brought the Cardinals their 10th in 2006. David Freese was named World Series MVP, becoming only the sixth player in Major League postseason history to win both the NLCS and World Series MVPs in the same postseason. Freese’s 21 RBIs were the most ever in a postseason. The Rangers had gone 46 straight games without losing back-to-back games, and then lost their last two of the season. They remain one of eight franchises to have never won a World Series. The Rangers and the Padres are the only two of those eight to have appeared in two World Series. The Rangers, who lost last year's World Series to the Giants in five games, are also the first team to lose back-to-back Fall Classics since the Braves did so in 1991 and '92. That was at the beginning of the Braves' long run of success, but that's probably of little consolation to the Rangers, who blew two-run leads in the ninth and 10th innings of Game 6, then went quietly into the night in Game 7. Close but yet, so far.