Cardinals a Win Away From Second Consecutive World Series Berth

The St. Louis Cardinals took a 3-1 NLCS lead on the San Francisco Giants on Thursday

On Thursday, the Detroit Tigers punched their ticket to the World Series with an 8-1 victory over the New York Yankees, and the St. Louis Cardinals came within a game of doing the same with a 8-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants (the series now stands at 3-1, St. Louis).

If the Cards are able to finish the job, it will set up a World Series matchup between the team that defeated the Rangers in the World Series (apologies for bringing that up again), and the team that the Rangers defeated to get to that World Series, in 2011.

As Adam Boedeker pointed out on this blog earlier, the Tigers have to be the favorite going into the series. Detroit were able to dispose of the Yankees in two fewer games than it took the Rangers to dispose of them in the ALCS a year ago--Texas beat Detroit 4-2 in six games, where the Tigers swept the Yanks, 4-0.

This will give Detroit a chance to set up their already impressive rotation to their liking, which is a good thing for Rangers fans. Because, honestly, do any of us want to see the Cards go back-to-back, or, should they come back from the 3-1 deficit, the Giants (who defeated Texas in the World Series in 2010) win two in three years?

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us