Unlikely heroes

The Cardinals made it back to the World Series by winning a dramatic Game 7 of an epic NLCS with a home run off the bat of Yadier Molina, who slugged only .321 in the regular season.  They're underdogs for the third straight postseason series, but tonight they won Game 1 against the Tigers by beating Justin Verlander, Detroit's best starting pitcher, with rookie Anthony Reyes, who started only because their best pitchers were needed to beat the Mets.  This year's Cardinals won only 83 regular-season games, the fewest in a full season for a World Series team since the 1973 Mets.  Now they have a one-game lead and pitchers Jeff Weaver, Chris Carpenter and Jeff Suppan coming up.  Everyone seems to expect the Tigers to win easily, but I'll pick the Cardinals in five games.  St. Louis fans deserve to win it all at home.