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2006 World Series Game 1 recap
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DTMagazine Home Player comparisons and series prediction
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 -- -- vs. -- --  St. Louis Cardinals 7 Detroit Tigers 2
Rick Gagliano | 10/21/06
Game one of the 2006 World Series was all Cardinals, all the time. St. Louis hammered rookie Justin Verlander for 7 runs en route to a lopsided 7-2 win and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Scott Rolen and Albert Pujols homered and Anthony Reyes pitched 8 strong innings, retiring 17 in a row at one stretch and holding the Tigers scoreless on just one hit from the first inning through the eighth.
Questions swirled about the pre-game decisions of both managers - Detroit's Jim Leyland and St. Louis' Tony La Russa. La Russa chose to start 5-game winner Anthony Reyes instead of pitching Jeff Weaver on short rest against rookie flamethrower - and winner of 17 games - Justin Verlander.
Leyland, who activated first baseman Sean Casey for the series, came to the field with a lineup card that would bewilder and be questioned throughout. Casey was penciled in, but at DH and batting 7th. Craig Monroe batted 2nd, and with Carlos Guillen playing first base, weak hitting Ramon Santiago played short and batted ninth.
It looked like Leyland's moves were correct in the bottom of the first, when the Tigers scored a run by virtue of a Craig Monroe double, a walk to Magglio Ordonez and a run-scoring Carlos Guillen single.
However, the Cards answered in the very next frame.
In the top of the 2nd, starter Justin Verlander, pitching to Scott Rolen with one out and nobody on, missed with his first pitch - a high fastball - then came right back with a steamer down the middle of the plate which Rolen deposited in the left field stands.
Then in the third inning, after Yadier Molina had reached on a flare to right, catcher Ivan Rodriguez fielded a ball on the chalk of the third baseline when So Taguchi threw his bat at the ball on a hit and run. The ball was clearly spinning foul and Rodriguez easily could have let it go foul. Instead, Pudge got the out at first, but Molina stood at second until Duncan doubled down the line into right field and plated the Cards' catcher.
With Duncan on second, Leyland made the most questionable call of all: pitching to Albert Pujols with two outs and first base open. All it took to show the folly of that maneuver was one pitch, a high outside fastball which Pujols hammered over the right field wall. Suddenly, it was 4-1 St. Louis.
The score remained the same through the 5th, as Verlander moved down the Cardinals, striking out 8, but it was Reyes, the improbable game one starter (the lowest win total of any game 1 starter in World Series history) who was ahead and pitching like a seasoned pro. After allowing 2 hits and a run in the first inning, Reyes had retired 13 straight Tigers.
Verlander, who threw 81 pitches through the first five innings, was tiring badly in the sixth, walking Pujols to lead off the inning. Verlander threw wildly on a pick-off attempt, and Pujols ended up at third. Jim Edmonds worked the count to 3-2 and dumped a soft liner into right field, scoring Pujols. Rolen hit a ground rule double down the right field line and the Tigers' rookie ace was finished for the night without getting an out in the sixth.
Jason Grilli came on in relief, and pitching to Juan Encarnacion, the wheels nearly came off completely for Detroit. Encarnacion hit a two-hopper to 3rd baseman Brandon Inge, who bobbled it and threw wildly to home. Then Rolen was obstructed by Inge on the third base line and was awarded home. 7-1 Cardinals. After that, Grilli got Belliard, Molina and Taguchi to end the inning.
Reyes came in to work the bottom of the frame and calmly retired 3 more hitters, running his streak to 16 straight. He got one out in the 7th, and Carlos Guillen squirted a single just beyond the glove of 2nd baseman Ronnie Belliard ending Reyes' perfect streak at 17.
Fernando Rodney, Wilfredo Ledezma, Todd Jones and Jamie Walker worked the 7th, 8th and 9th, allowing the Cardinals no runs on just two singles - one to Jim Edmonds to led off the 8th and a one-out squibber off Jones' foot by So Taguchi with one out in the ninth.
Reyes went to the mound to start the ninth, but when leadoff hitter Craig Monroe homered to right, La Russa figured the young man had done enough and brought in Bradon Looper, who got the final three outs, despite a two-out fielding error by Scott Rolen.
The questions answered in game one were evident. The Cardinals' experience - they were swept by the Red Sox in '04 - would serve them well. They were the more poised team, and the youthful Tigers committed 3 errors along with a handful of mental blunders, looked nervous at the plate and in the field and couldn't mount a challenge once they fell behind.
While La Russa was vindicated in starting Reyes, Leyland will be second-guessed for pitching to Pujols and for starting Sean Casey (0-3) and Ramon Santiago (0-2). The pressure shifts to the Tigers for game 2, as the Cardinals ended a Detroit 7-game win streak.
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