ST. LOUIS -- Tony La Russa's Cardinals lineup for Game 7 looks like this:
Theriot, 2b
Craig, lf
Pujols, 1b
Berkman, rf
Freese, 3b
Molina, c
Furcal, ss
Schumaker, cf
Carpenter, p
Matt Holliday's sprained finger has him off the roster because La Russa said he could only pinch-run. Adron Chambers is eligible as a backup outfielder. La Russa said Game Six winner and ex-Bison Jake Westbrook might be the first long man out of the pen to follow Chris Carpenter, throwing on three days rest. Here's some of La Russa's other thoughts:
On starting Carpenter on short rest: "If he would be available to pitch, he probably would have pitched in this game sometime. Makes sense to start him. Goes through his routine, gives us all he has. And it made less sense, I think, to come out of the bullpen."
On moving past Game Six: "The first job that we have today is putting yesterday aside to be remembered later. So since I'm one of the ones on the staff that gives that message, as soon as I got stirring this morning, refused to think about last night. You control your mind. That's what we're trying to do as a team."
On Lance Berkman saying Game Six is a footnote if the Cardinals lose tonight: "You're going to have to go real hard to have a better sixth game than that ever. I think that's going to make its mark as far as the sixth game of the World Series. But I understand his point and I like it. We don't want to settle for an exciting Game Six win. We want to bring it out today and see if they can beat us. I think it'll stand alone as a sixth game, but that's not what we came here for."
On his emotions heading into the first World Series Game Seven of his long career: "Well, whoever is not nervous should not participate because that means you don't care. Nervous is good. Nervous means you care ... here is like the final piece, you participate in a Game Seven, that's as good as it gets. I plan to enjoy the hell out of it."
For the pregame thoughts from Rangers manager Ron Washington, go to this post.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
tagged
Cardinals | World Series
