Cardinals crush Dodgers to reach World Series

 

The St. Louis Cardinals advanced to the World Series with a resounding 9-0 win over Los Angeles on Friday as rookie Michael Wacha outpitched Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw to seal the National League Championship Series 4-2.

The Cardinals, who won the most recent of their 11 World Series titles in 2011, claimed their record 19th NL pennant and will face the Boston Red Sox or Detroit Tigers of the American League for the Major League Baseball crown.

St. Louis erupted for four runs in the third when they sent 10 men to the plate and batted around again in the fifth to add five more runs, turning Game Six into a rout and sending their red-clad fans into a handkerchief-waving frenzy.
Wacha extended his brilliant run by shutting the Dodgers down on two hits over seven innings for the win and was named Most Valuable Player of the series. He walked one and struck out five as the Cardinals out-hit Los Angeles 13-2.

The victory put the Cardinals into the World Series for the fourth time in the last decade and went some way to making up for last year's NLCS in which the San Francisco Giants came back from 3-1 down in the series to beat the Cardinals, winning the last game by the same 9-0 score.
"We do have to learn from the things that we've done in the past," said Matheny. "The feeling of standing in the rain a year ago and watching San Francisco celebrate, that was a tough day for us. We've kind of been talking about that."
The Cardinals' World Series opponents will be determined this weekend.
The Red Sox host the Tigers at Fenway Park for Game Six on Saturday and Game Seven, if needed, on Sunday holding a 3-2 edge in the AL Championship Series.