St Louis Cardinals edge World Series

The St Louis Cardinals won a remarkable baseball World Series by beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 on Friday night, writes Ben Walker.

A day after an epic Game 6 that saw them twice within one strike of elimination, the Cardinals captured their 11th World Series crown in front of a Busch Stadium record crowd of 47,399.

David Freese’s two-run double tied it in the first inning against losing pitcher Matt Harrison and Allen Craig hit a go-ahead home run in the third.

Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter got his second win in the Series and fourth in the post-season but Rangers’ Josh Hamilton and Michael Young each had RBI doubles in the first inning against Carpenter, the first pitcher in a decade to make three starts in one Series. But, in the first Series Game 7 in nine years, St Louis came right back against Harrison, who walked two batters before the big hit by Freese.

St Louis won their first title since 2006 and became the 19th team to overturn a 3-2 World Series deficit. Coach Tony La Russa won his third World Series title

The Rangers were trying for their first championship in the 51-season history of a franchise that started out as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961.