GAME 1: 8 Saturday night.
WHERE: Comerica Park, Detroit.
BROADCAST: TV — Fox (WOFL-Ch. 35). Radio — 740 AM (WQTM).
REGULAR SEASON: Cardinals — 83-78, won National League Central. Tigers — 95-67, finished second in American League Central, claimed wild card.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Cardinals — beat San Diego in four games in the division series, defeated the New York Mets in seven games in the NL Championship Series. Tigers — ousted the New York Yankees in four games in the division series, swept the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS.
LAST WORLD SERIES TITLE: Cardinals — beat the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games to win the 1982 Series; they lost to the Kansas City Royals in ’85, the Minnesota Twins in ’87 and the Boston Red Sox in 2004. Tigers — beat the Padres in five games in the ’84 series. Until this season, they hadn’t made the playoffs since ’87 when the Twins beat them in the ALCS.
TOP HITTERS: Cardinals — 1B Albert Pujols (.331, 49 home runs, 137 RBIs), 3B Scott Rolen (.296-22-95), RF Juan Encarnacion (.278-19-79). Tigers — RF Magglio Ordonez (.298-24-104), 1B/SS Carlos Guillen (.320-19-85), C Ivan Rodriguez (.300-13-69).
TOP STARTING PITCHERS: Cardinals — RHP Chris Carpenter (15-8, 3.09 ERA), RHP Jeff Suppan (12-7, 4.12 ERA). Tigers — LHP Kenny Rogers (17-8, 3.84 ERA), RHP Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.63 ERA).
CLOSER: Cardinals — RHP Adam Wainwright (2-1, 3.12 ERA, 3 saves). Tigers — RHP Todd Jones (2-6, 3.94 ERA, 37 saves).
TOP PLAYOFF PERFORMERS: Cardinals — Pujols (.324-2-4), C Yadier Molina (.333-2-7), CF Jim Edmonds (.257-2-6), RHP Jeff Weaver (2-1, 2.16 ERA), Wainwright (0.00 ERA, 3 saves). Tigers — 2B Placido Polanco (.471), CF Curtis Granderson (.313-3-7), Ordonez (.250-3-8), Rogers (2-0, 0.00 ERA), Jones (5 games, 3 saves).
TOP QUESTIONS: Cardinals — Who will help out Pujols in the lineup? How will Wainwright, an inexperienced closer who took over after Jason Isringhausen was injured, fare? Will Weaver, 8-14 in the regular season but excellent in the postseason, continue his solid pitching? Tigers — How will a weeklong layoff affect them? Will their power (13 homers in eight playoff games) continue to be on? Will Rodriguez (.172 postseason average) wake up?
THE BUZZ: The Tigers swept the Cardinals in a three-game series at Detroit in June. . . . The Tigers had endured 12 consecutive losing seasons before this year, including dropping an AL-record 119 games in 2003. . . . The Cardinals endured two eight-game losing streaks in midseason and a seven-game slide in September that almost caused them to blow an 81/2-game lead in the final two weeks. . . . Weaver pitched for the Tigers from 1999-2002.
PREDICTION: Tigers in five.
