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.

Former Cincinnati Reds majority owner and CEO Carl Lindner died Monday night at the age of 92.

Lindner took over the team in 1999 after Marge Schott was forced out. Perhaps his greatest influence on the team was to bring a sense of stability to the owner’s spot.

Lindner held his majority stake through 2006, overseeing the building and opening of Great American Ball Park and the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. He sold most of his shares in the team to Bob Castellini’s group in January 2006.

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.