World Series | featured news

Smart pitching. Clutch hitting. Sharp fielding. Plus an MVP Panda. All the right elements for a sweet World Series sweep for the San Francisco Giants. Nearly knocked out in the playoffs time and time again, and finally pressed by the Detroit Tigers in Game 4, Pablo Sandoval and the Giants clinched their second title in three seasons Sunday night.

In the absence of truly great teams, baseball thrives on drama. And for weeks, the sport got about as much as it could have hoped for: postseason races that came down to the final days of the regular season, four division series that went five games and a Game 7 in the NLCS.

Justin Verlander lasted just four innings on Wednesday night and surrendered two of the three home runs hit by Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval in an 8-3 Tigers loss that opened the World Series in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Giants are back in the World Series, meaning baseball’s best party will rage at least two more nights. The Giants snuffed the reigning champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-0, to win Game 7 of the National League Championship Series at AT&T Park on Monday. They shook orange towels, jammed to classic rock, scarfed garlic fries and reveled in another shot at glory.

Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, announced Monday he is retiring after 33 seasons as a manager in professional baseball. The Cardinals capped an improbable comeback last week by defeating the Texas Rangers to win the World Series.

The Cardinals, who made the postseason with the fewest wins, 90, of any playoff team, won their 11th World Series title by beating the Rangers in a series that went all seven games.

David Freese homered to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals forced the World Series to a Game 7 by rallying from two-run deficits against the Texas Rangers in the 9th and 10th on Thursday night.

MLB announced that tonight’s scheduled Game 6 of the World Series has been postponed because of expected rain in St. Louis. Cardinals and Rangers officials learned of the early postponement during an afternoon conference call with MLB. Light rain has been falling throughout the day in St. Louis and various weather reports peg the chances of rain tonight at 75-90 percent. Rather than attempt to play through the bad weather and perhaps get stuck having to delay the game after several innings they’ll push Game 6 to Thursday night and schedule a potential Game 7 for Friday night.

The Texas Rangers moved one win from their first World Series title with a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5. The deafening chants of “Nap-O-Li! Nap-O-Li!” rang out from the 51,549 fans before and after the key eighth-inning at-bat, sounding like the Sunday afternoon cheers for the Italian soccer team.

Derek Holland pitched into the ninth inning as Texas tied the World Series at two games apiece with a shutout.