The wait is finally over for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds are going to their first World Series since 1987. The Cardinals beat the Houston Astros 5-2 last night in game 7 of the National League Championship Series, winning the series 4-3. Houston jumped out to the early lead. Craig Biggio led off the game with a home run off Jeff Suppan. The Astros would add another run in the third to take a 2-0 lead. But the Cardinals fought back in the bottom of third. The Redbirds executed the squeeze play to perfection. Suppan’s bunt scored Tony Womack, cutting the Houston lead to 2-1. The Cardinals took the lead for good with three runs in the sixth inning. With two outs, Albert Pujols doubled off Roger Clemens, driving in Roger Cedeno. On the next pitch, Scott Rolen lined a two-run homer just over the fence in left field. Larry Walker drove in an insurance run in the eighth inning. Jason Isringhausen pitched a perfect ninth inning to finish the game. Suppan was the winning pitcher. He gave up just two runs on three hits in six innings. Kiko Calero, Julian Tavarez and Isringhausen each threw a scoreless inning. Pujols was named NLCS MVP. He hit .500 in the series with four home runs and nine RBI. The Cardinals will appear in the World Series for the 16th time in franchise history. They’ll face the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 Fall Classic. Game 1 will be at Fenway Park on Saturday.
