After playing six and a half innings - or about twenty minutes - of scoreless baseball, the Cardinals finally got on the board in the bottom of the seventh, when Allen Craig, again, came up with a pinch-hit RBI single, again, off Alexi Ogando, again. That put St. Louis in front 1-0, and the Rangers had but six outs with which to play.

Make that three outs with which to play. Because - and this will amaze you - their hitters couldn't do anything against the Cardinal bullpen in the top of the eighth.

Fernando Salas took over for Jaime Garcia, and he struck out Mike Napoli on five pitches to lead off. Some mutual managerial tweaking then led to Marc Rzepczynski facing Yorvit Torrealba, and Torrealba struck out on three pitches. The Rangers' last hope in the frame was a pinch-hitting Esteban German, but German bounced the first pitch to Albert Pujols at first base, who recorded the easy out.

So we're that much closer to a 1-0 final. Something tells me the games in Texas will be a little bit different, but the Cardinals couldn't really ask to be in a better spot right now.