World Series predictions

Back in September a friend on Facebook lamented how it wasn't the Cardinals' year after seeing them lose to the Brewers.

My response on Sept. 8, "Maybe it is ... Sweep the Braves and they're only 3 1/2 back of the wild card two weeks to play. Wild card teams always do well in postseason."

I'm not going to lie and say I knew all along the Cardinals would make the playoffs, let alone the World Series.

Here's what I wrote on July 4th.

This is a resilient bunch and one of the most amazing comeback stories in the history of baseball. Can they finish the job and beat the Texas Rangers for the team's 11th title? (11 in '11 sure sounds good)

We're taking predictions on the World Series, which starts at 7:05 p.m. tonight in St. Louis, over at our Facebook page and here.

I'll post my prediction later tonight and host a running Game 1 blog.

MY PREDICTION

It's hard to make these things. You read as much as you can, watch as much as you can and it comes down a gut reaction. On paper these are two even teams but we don't play games on paper and if we did, nobody would pay $350 for a standing-room ticket because it would be boring.

That said, I picked the Rangers in 6 games with closer Neftali Feliz as the MVP.

The three lefty starters for Texas is the only major difference between these two teams. And the Cardinals struggle against left-handed pitching. In fact, St. Louis was 20-20 in starts by left-handed opponents this season (70-52 against right-handers). The Cardinals hit for a lower average against lefties, .265 to .276, and remember Randy Wolf? He struggled in the NLDS but set the Cards down in the NLCS.

If the Cardinals can get to C.J. Wilson in Game 1, then the edge goes to the Cardinals because they can go up 2-0 heading to Texas. I like the Game 2 matchup pitching wise for St. Louis so as long as there's a split in St. Louis, you gotta love the chances for a Game 6.

The one thing that's hard to read is how loose the Cardinals will be. Playing with nothing to lose is easy when you have nothing to lose, but now this is the World Series. Will they tighten up?

As a fan, I hope they won't but we've seen it before (see Colorado in 2007).