St. Louis Cardinals Edge Texas Rangers to Win Game 1 of World Series

An Allen Craig pinch-hit RBI single in the 6th inning was the difference as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 in Game 1 of the World Series.

Rangers RF Nelson Cruz (pictured) just missed catching the ball the by inches as the ball hit his left ankle after it bounced on the ground.

Rangers starter C.J. Wilson was pulled after 6 2/3 innings with men on first and third for Alexi Ogando.  David Freese had doubled and then advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Nick Punto then walked as Wilson was pulled.  Ogando worked the count to two strikes against Cardinals pinch hitter Allen Craig before he hit a fly ball that died just fair of the right field line, scoring Freese.

The game's scoring started when the Cardinals got out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th when Lance Berkman hit a 2-run single. Then the Rangers tied the game with a 2-run homer from Mike Napoli.

Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa used six different pitchers during the game.  Chris Carpenter pitched six innings to get the win and Jason Motte picked up the save.

"It was a great performance," manager Tony La Russa said of Carpenter to MLB.com. "They're a great hitting team. If you don't make a lot of pitches, they're going to bang you around. I thought early in the game as close as it was, for both pitchers the balls were very slick. They were having a little gripping thing but both of them just competed, and they both did a good job. The thing about Carp, he was exactly what we needed."

Game 2 is tomorrow night at 7 o'clock at Busch Stadium.