Oct 21, 2006 11:14 pm US/Eastern
Cardinals Take Game One Of The World Series
Detroit, MI (AP) ―
With the right rookie on the mound, it was the scrappy St. Louis Cardinals who looked sharp in the World Series.
After a week off, the Detroit Tigers simply looked rusty.
Anthony Reyes pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning, Albert Pujols made Detroit pay for pitching to him, and Scott Rolen also homered to help St. Louis cruise past the Tigers 7-2 in the Series opener Saturday night.
Game 2 is Sunday night, with Kenny Rogers pitching for Detroit against ex-Tiger Jeff Weaver.
With the Tigers hosting their first World Series game in 22 years, fans showed up hoping to see rookie Justin Verlander buzz through a St. Louis team that scraped its way past the New York Mets in a seven-game NL championship series that had wrapped up less than 48 hours earlier.
But instead, Reyes easily outpitched Verlander in the first Game 1 matchup between rookies, taking the crowd out of it early and ending Detroit's seven-game postseason winning streak.
Reyes retired 17 consecutive batters before Carlos Guillen's seventh-inning single and was lifted after Craig Monroe homered on the first pitch of the ninth.
Braden Looper finished off St. Louis' first World Series victory since 1987, stopping an eight-game Series losing streak for NL teams.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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