SI.com's John Donovan As close as the Red Sox are to ending their 86-year drought of World Series titles, you won't hear any of them talk about it. • FULL STORY SI.com's Albert Chen If Hollywood made a movie about this ragtag group of Red Sox, who would be in the cast? • FULL STORY SI Exclusive Blood and Guts In trying to end the Curse, Curt Schilling and the Sox got off on the right foot. By Tom Verducci Father and son: St. Louis | Boston Pierce: The Myth behind the Curse St. Louis-Boston: Duel of Two Cities

Random observations from the World Series ...

• St. Louis just doesn't have the kind of power arms needed to hold down a deep Boston lineup, especially with Chris Carpenter out and Matt Morris going on short rest in a season in which his velocity diminished. Cardinals pitchers threw 365 pitches in losing the the first two games of this World Series and were able to get the Red Sox to swing and miss only 18 times.

• And St. Louis is pitching as if it knows its stuff is short. The team that walked the second-fewest batters in baseball this season gave the Red Sox 18 free baserunners without benefit of a hit in two games: 14 walks, three hit batsmen and one error. The Red Sox are flat-out wearing down Cardinals hurlers, who pitched with the bases empty in only 33 of the 86 plate appearances against them in the first two games.

• Jim Edmonds' bunt hit against the overshift was a brilliant play with his team down 4-0 leading off the second inning of Game 1. Think Jason Giambi was watching?

• How much is Pedro Martinez on his own program? The Boston pitcher never bothered going to New York for Game 6 of the ALCS, an elimination game for his team. Assistant trainer and hand-holder Chris Correnti told the Boston staff after Game 5 that Martinez would be better equipped to pitch relief in Game 7 if he stayed in Boston for Game 6. Amazing. Manny Ramirez skipped the team flight for Game 6 and arrived on his own the next day -- late.

• Forty-nine batters have come to the plate against a hobbling Curt Schilling in two starts since his ankle was stitched together. Not one has tried to bunt.

• Anybody seen John Mabry? The guy hit 10 homers in 186 at-bats against right-handed pitching this year, and yet he gets zero at-bats in the first two games of the World Series. Tony La Russa went with So Taguchi (who played leftfield in Game 1, sliding Reggie Sanders to DH) and Marlon Anderson as his extra bats. They combined for one infield single in six at-bats.

• Strangest bunt: Tony Womack giving up an out in the second inning of Game 1, down 4-0, two runners on and a big inning in the works against Tim Wakefield. It wasn't as if Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen followed -- it was Mike Matheny and Taguchi. St. Louis got only one run out of that first-and-second, no-outs situation in a game in which 20 runs would be scored. Why give up the out?

• The Red Sox are on a classic postseason hot streak (i.e., 2002 Angels, 2003 Marlins), but they've been assisted by a decided lack of quality left-handed pitching. Boston has seen a total of three southpaws the entire postseason, none of whom remind you of Randy Johnson: Jarrod Washburn, Felix Heredia and Ray King. Think David Ortiz hasn't noticed? The breakdown on outs obtained by opposing pitchers this postseason against Boston:

Right-handers: 325
 Left-handers: 19.

• Forget the ex-Cubs factor. One sure way not to win the World Series is the Kenny Lofton factor. The man has never won a World Series, though he's been in the postseason nine times. Lofton has been a part of some of the greatest collapses of this generation. He played on:

a team that blew a two games to none lead in the best-of-five Division Series (1999 Indians);

a team that was six outs away from winning the World Series with a two-run lead, but lost that game and the next day (2002 Giants);

a team that blew a three-games-to-one lead in the NLCS, including one possible clincher in which it was up by three runs with five outs to go (2003 Cubs);

the only team in baseball history to lose a seven-game series after leading three-games-to-none (2004 Yankees).

• Only seven teams scored at least six runs in each of the first two games of the World Series. Here they are: 1908 Cubs (Won World Series), 1937 Yankees (won), 1956 Dodgers (lost), 1980 Phillies (won), 1987 Twins (won), 1998 Yankees (won), 2004 Red Sox (?).

• Only five teams have scored nine or more runs in a World Series game and lost it. Here they are: 1960 Yankees (lost World Series), 1993 Phillies (lost), 1997 Indians (lost), 2002 Giants (lost), 2004 Cardinals (?).

• Is anybody else annoyed by the dogging the Red Sox do on the bases? They don't even bother hustling in the World Series. Consider:

Ramirez showboats down the first-base line after a run-scoring single in the seventh inning of Game 1. When Edmonds overthrows the cutoff man, Ramirez cannot get to second base.

In Game 2, Orlando Cabrera hit a ball off the Green Monster and the relay throw kicked off the glove of shortstop Edgar Renteria, but Cabrera didn't reach second base. He cost his team a run when Ramirez followed with a bloop single and Ortiz struck out. Cabrera was stranded at third. By the way, Ramirez never bothered running hard on his bloop single. He should have been standing on second base.

• Hard to find someone who hurt the Yankees more than Tom Gordon and Kevin Brown in the ALCS. The Red Sox batted .500 against Gordon in the eighth innings of the series (7-for-14), with a double, a triple and two homers. His ERA in the eighth inning was 19.29. Brown is a broken down pitcher who has no clue how to pitch without dominating stuff and alienates himself from the rest of the team.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.