World Series Game 7 Free Pick
(The Spread) – One game. Nine innings (maybe). One champion. Who will win the 2011 World Series tonight in Game 7 between the Rangers and Cardinals?
Oddsmakers have installed the host St. Louis Cardinals as –133 money line favorites for tonight’s Game 7 with the Texas Rangers, who are +125 on the ML. The over/under total for this game is currently sitting at 8 runs.
Texas will turn to Matt Harrison for the most important start of his career, while St. Louis will hand the ball to ace Chris Carpenter. Harrison was lit up for five runs and six hits in a disastrous Game 3 performance on October 22. The Cardinals scored 16 runs in a 16-7 victory that propelled them to a short-lived 2-1 series lead.
Carpenter, meanwhile, has been counted on time and time again to save the Cardinals’ season. He won the final game of the regular season against the Astros to help St. Louis reach the playoffs, then pitched a complete game shutout against the Phillies in the NLCS to help the Cards reach the World Series. Now, after beating the Rangers in Game 1 and earning a no decision in Game 5, Carp will once again be called upon to win the biggest game of the year.
Free Pick: This series reminds me a lot of the 2002 Fall Classic between the Giants and Angels. San Francisco was five outs away from becoming champions when Scott Spiezio hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 6 to propel the Angels to a 6-5 victory. Even though there was still a Game 7, you had the sense that the Giants were finished. They scratched across just one run in Game 7 and fell to the Angels 4-1.
The Rangers were one strike away from winning this World Series on two separate occasions and couldn’t slam the door. That’s not five outs. That’s one strike. One pitch. And they couldn’t do it. Forget Harrison’s brutal start in Game 3 or Carpenter’s gusto in the postseason. Forget Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and David Freese. I don’t know how a team can come back from what Texas just did and if the Rangers do, then they deserve to celebrate until next April. But I just don’t see it. Destiny is a word that’s often overused in the sports world but it fits here with the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals.
2011 WORLD SERIES GAME 7 FREE PICK: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS –134
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