Kyle Lohse pitched brilliantly in the first inning, striking out two of the three Rangers he faced.

The second didn't go quite as well. Michael Young led off with a grounder to shortstop, but Adrián Beltré lined a single into right-center field and Nelson Cruz walked. But Lohse got Mike Napoli on a pop fly and David Murphy on a grounder to Pujols, and so the score remained Cardinals 1, Rangers 0.

Meanwhile, there was at least one moment of oddness in the bottom of the second, when Joe Buck described Michael Young as "the ultimate team player".

I won't argue that Young isn't a team player; he is a player, on a team. But has Buck really forgotten that Young has thrown huge public fits twice? First upon being moved from shortstop to third base, and next upon being moved from third base to a super-utlility role?

I'm not saying he didn't have good reasons for all his complaining. Maybe he did. But it seems like the ultimate team player would have said something like, "I don't care where I play, as long as I can help the team win."

Or something similar.

The postseason and especially the World Series does funny things to baseball announcers.