On nights like tonight, when the sixth game of the World Series would have happened if not for the promise of rain in St. Louis, I find myself wondering: Does Tony LaRussa regret that bullshit he pulled on the Reds this season when he acted all like the radar showed they’d be able to squeeze the game in but miraculously didn’t warm up his real starter until after the lengthy delay?

I mean, that might have been a pretty good trick to pull tonight, if MLB wasn’t already on to it.

On the other hand, maybe he’d be glad. After all, with this game delayed, the Cards would be able to have Chris Carpenter pitch on short rest in game 7, should they make it that far. And we all know how he feels about Carp.

After that unholy shellacking that the Cards put the Rangers through last night (at least, so I hear…I turned it off before St. Louis even got to 12 runs), Texas came back to tie the series up 2-2 in shutout fashion. As you know, all the should-be spokesmen for the team ducked out on the media after their last lost–proving once and for all that Brandon Phillips has them all wrong–leaving the rookies to fend for themselves.

I don’t know whether they did that again tonight; the broadcast I was watching hadn’t even tried to talk to them. To be fair, though, how many ways are there to say, “whatever we had yesterday was gone today”?

With the Colts game tonight, though, there’s no way anyone’s going to be talking about the World Series around the old water cooler tomorrow. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of a 55-point differential in a professional football game before, especially not when the two teams were facing each other in the Super Bowl, what, two years ago?

But I digress. The Rangers get their last home game tomorrow before the series moves back to St. Louis.

With the Cardinals win tonight, former Cincinnati Red Arthur Rhodes is one game closer to a sure-thing World Series ring. And I don’t say that because Dave Duncan has obviously signed a deal with the devil to get that bullpen performing like it is; Rhodes gets a ring either way:

Less than a week shy of his 42nd birthday, the left-handed relief pitcher is in his first World Series, and he is guaranteed of getting a championship ring because he’s played for both teams this season, becoming the eighth player in baseball history to do so.

If you had to pick a Cardinal to be in that situation, I can’t think of a better one to choose.

With 89% of precincts reporting, it is the St. Louis Cardinals who will be representing the National League in the World Series.

We at Red Hot Mama would like to thank the Milwaukee Brewers for demonstrating that really crappy defense really can sink you in the post-season. As Reds fans, we had to be wondering whether the plus defense on the field in Cincinnati was worth it, and now we see how ugly the alternative can be in the playoffs. Now if they can just get to October baseball to demonstrate how good good defense can look.

The American League side of the World Series has been decided tonight: the Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers in six games. The score was Detroit 5, Texas 15.

The National League series continues tomorrow night. The Cardinals lead the series 3-2, so the Brewers have to win to stay alive. The series has moved back to Milwaukee, and if the Brew Crew does manage to come back to win the series, we may have already seen Albert Pujols’ last game at Busch Stadium.