Cardinals Face Elimination in Game 6 of World Series
The St. Louis Cardinals are on the brink of elimination trailing the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in the 2013 World Series. A loss tonight by St. Louis gives the Boston Red Sox the championship, while a win sends the series to a seventh and final game on Friday.
St. Louis is in this situation after losing two of three games at home. The Cardinals split the first two games of the series at Fenway Park in Boston, but could not take control of the series on their home field and now face elimination.
Boston has not won the World Series at Fenway Park since 1918, when the stars were Harry Hooper, Carl Mays and the unforgettable Babe Ruth.
The last time Game 6 of a World Series was played at Fenway was in 1975. That night Carlton Fisk hit a 12th inning home run down the left field line and his jump up and down watching it while at the same time waving it fair will be a highlight reel for Major League Baseball forever.
Boston eventually lost the series 7-6 the next night to the Cincinnati Reds. However, now the situation is different, as they own a 3-2 lead entering the sixth game.
Boston swept St. Louis in the 2004 World Series but won games 1 and 2 at home and finished the series at Busch Stadium.
What is absolutely incredible is the price of tickets for the game. The cheapest tickets available late Tuesday night were for $983 on the roof deck in right field. A box seat behind the dugout was selling for $10,894.
No one on the Red Sox or for that matter on the Cardinals has come close to the hitting success David Ortiz has had in the series. The veteran DH, who played three games in St. Louis at first base, is hitting .733 for the series. He has 11 hits in 15 at bats, two home runs, six runs batted in and one sacrifice fly. He has one-third of the hits for his team.
St. Louis was stuck at home in their airport on Tuesday as their charter flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties for a number of hours.
St. Louis now much worry about Boston having its preferred lineup as Ortiz will be a DH, Mike Napoli on first base and Shane Victorini in right field with Jonny Gomez moving to left taking over for Daniel Nava.
Manager John Farrell did make a change by giving David Ross the start at catcher over Jarrod Saltalamacchia who has been slumping.
Allen Craig will move to DH for the Cardinals due to his foot injury. The Cards will send rookie sensation Michael Wacha to the mound. Wacha dueled with John Lackey in Game 2 of the series. The rookie is 4-0 in his first postseason.
In 42 of 62 World Series, the team that was leading 3-2 won the Series, including 24 of the teams winning Game 6. Pittsburgh won the last two games of the series in 1979 at Baltimore to overcome a 3-2 deficit, but since then six straight teams did not overcome the deficit on the road.
