The fall classic is set and should be a pretty good matchup between the Rangers and Cardinals. The series begins Wednesday night in St. Louis b/c of the stupid All-Star game deciding home field advantage. Look for the game one to feature CJ Wilson for the Rangers against Chris Carpenter for the Cardinals.
Both teams are coming off impressive game 6 thumpings of both the Tigers and Brewers. You can argue that the Cardinals have had the much tougher road to get to the series. Not only did the make the playoffs on pretty much the last day of season thanks to an epic collapse by the Braves, but then to go through Philadelphia and an upstart Milwaukee team was most impressive. They've done a great job of putting runs up on the board and their pitching has been plenty respectable considering they've had to go through all this without their best pitcher in Wainwright.
Who would have ever thought the Rangers would make back-to-back trips to the World Series. The Rangers come into the series riding the hot hitting of Nelson Cruz. Cruz was a beast in the ALCS and outshined the Miguel Cabrera who had a great series himself. The Rangers will have to deal with not having the benefit of a DH for the games in St. Louis. The Rangers really don't have any easy outs in their normal 1-9 lineup but having to mix in a pitcher will be a bit of a change. As much as Nelson Cruz was the MVP in the ALCS, a close second to him would have to be the Rangers bullpen. Scott Feldman, Alexi Ogando, Mike Adams, and Neftali Feliz have been great weapons for the Rangers. I think the bullpen actually had more wins in the ALCS than the actual starting pitchers.
I'm thinking there will be plenty of offense in this series as both teams can really hit the ball. I think the Rangers are a deeper team and can get contributions from more guys on their roster, but the potential of having 4 games without the benefit of a DH could limit that depth. The Cardinals have the best pitcher in Carpenter, but after that their lineup isn't anything amazing. Both teams rely a lot on their hitters putting runs on the board than dominant shut-down pitching.
I think this could be a very exciting series, but I think the Rangers learn from last year and win in 6.