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Carpenter Shuts Down Tigers as Cardinals Take 2-1 Lead in Series: Cardinals 5, Tigers 0

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 24 -- You wouldn't have wanted to face Chris Carpenter anywhere, anytime the way he was dealing Tuesday night -- not on a lazy March afternoon in Florida, not on a humid East Coast summer night, and certainly not here, not now, deep in October, with a bone-cold Midwestern chill penetrating the skin and Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals' hulking ace, in a near-trance as he launched himself with maniacal focus into the moment he had been waiting for, the biggest start of his career, Game 3 of the World Series.

The Detroit Tigers certainly appeared as if they wanted nothing to do with Carpenter. He was nasty, and their at-bats were brutal and short, as if they longed only to return to the warmth of their dugout -- which they did frequently and quickly, victims of Carpenter's mastery. The resulting 5-0 Cardinals victory gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Series, with Game 4 on Wednesday night.

On a 43-degree night at the gleaming new Busch Stadium, with 46,513 fans bundled up in red against the chill, Carpenter delivered eight brilliant innings to lift up his flawed but plucky team -- one that recorded only 83 wins during the regular season, but now sits two victories away from its first World Series title in 24 years.

"It's amazing to watch him work . . . and just throw the ball to the glove," teammate Jim Edmonds said of Carpenter. "He has a focus and a game plan, and he doesn't really go away from it."

The Cardinals, their offense consisting of smoke, mirrors and Albert Pujols, won this pivotal game despite themselves. They won because Edmonds broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning by yanking a two-run double into the right field corner off Tigers starter Nate Robertson, and because rookie reliever Joel Zumaya, on a seventh-inning comebacker from Pujols with two runners aboard, made an ugly, ill-advised throw wide of third base, allowing two runs to score.

But mostly, they won because of Carpenter, who allowed three base runners -- on a trio of singles -- and permitted only one of them to advance into scoring position during an 82-pitch masterpiece. He not only did not allow a walk, but he never faced a three-ball count. He was like Dizzy Dean in 1934, Bob Gibson in 1968 -- the ace of the Cardinals' staff, dominating the Tigers in October.

"In the two games we lost, we had four hits in one and three hits in the other," Tigers Manager Jim Leyland said. "So I think, number one, you credit Chris Carpenter, and number two, we've just got a few guys who aren't swinging a bat very well right now."

Game 3 marked the return of the Fall Classic to one of America's great baseball towns, one that has hosted more World Series games (53 now) than any other city outside of New York. Before Tuesday, the most recent of them had been Game 4 in 2004, when the Cardinals, swept out before they had barely broken a sweat, watched the Boston Red Sox celebrate the end of their 86-year championship drought on the Cardinals' home field.

Only six players remain from that team, and Carpenter is not among them. He was injured in 2004, and St. Louis fans have always wondered what that team could have done had he been healthy. Now, they have their answer.

"Missing '04 was big," Carpenter said. "I obviously wanted to be a part of it. But I'm not looking back at '04."

The Cardinals fielded what must surely be considered among the most interesting -- to put it kindly -- lineups in World Series history. It featured a No. 2 hitter, Preston Wilson, who has one of the worst strikeout rates in the game, and a No. 5 hitter, Ronnie Belliard, who was benched in Game 2. Wilson batted in the second spot exactly three times this season, and Belliard batted in the fifth spot only twice.

But it was Wilson, 5 for 5 in his career against Robertson, who collected the first hit off the Tigers' begoggled lefty, leading off the fourth with a sharp line drive into left field. Next up was Pujols, who reached out for a slider off the plate and poked it with authority down the right field line. Three batters later, with one out and the bases loaded, Edmonds turned on an inside fastball and smoked it down the line for a two-run double.

"It wasn't even a strike," Robertson said of the slider to Pujols, shaking his head. "It slipped out of my hand."

Perhaps he should have used pine tar to get a better grip. On Monday afternoon, as a crowd of reporters swarmed around Tigers veteran pitcher Kenny Rogers, the protagonist in the morality tale surrounding his controversial, dirty-handed performance in Sunday night's Game 2, Robertson stood alone at his locker and shouted above the throng, "Hey, guys, I'm the one pitching tomorrow!"

But Robertson was no Rogers, and neither was the 21-year-old Zumaya, who was to have been the Tigers' ultimate weapon -- a goateed, tattooed flamethrower whose fastball has been clocked at 103 mph and whom the Tigers had hoped to deploy in any unstable situation, then sit back and watch him stabilize it.

Zumaya's performance was anything but stable. In the seventh, he walked the Cardinals' first two batters, then appeared to have saved himself by coaxing Pujols to dribble a tapper back to the mound. With Pujols lurching around these days on a sore hamstring, it should have been an easy double play, and everyone in the park expected Zumaya to pivot and throw to second base.

Instead, Zumaya threw to third, where third baseman Brandon Inge seemed to be among those not expecting a throw -- which, to make matters worse, was well behind Inge, rattling around the left field corner as two runs scored. The way Carpenter was pitching, it was over.

"I was thinking too much, man," Zumaya said. "Routine ground ball. I know a lot better than throwing to third."

So, it was utter defeat for the Tigers -- their confidence destroyed, their offense helpless against a dominating pitcher, their ultimate weapon suddenly turned against them, exploding in a million pieces in their own faces.