Cardinals on verge as forces conspire against Tigers

	Placido Polanco jumps for an errant throw from Fernando Rodney in the seventh inning as So Taguchi heads for second base. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
	THE WORLD SERIES GAME 5 Cardinals win first title since 1982 | BOX | GRADES BP: Big changes in store for next year's Cardinals BP: Tigers need to add big-time bats this winter DONOVAN: Cardinals complete unlikely run CHEN: Weaver shares moment with kid brother BP: Cardinals were better than their numbers HEYMAN: Redbirds red hot at right time GAME 4 Eckstein, Cardinals take control | BOX | GRADES VERDUCCI: Eckstein wins classic duel with Zumaya DONOVAN: Forces work against Tigers in Game 4 CHEN: Thirty-eight years later, history is repeated BP: Defining clutch and when to deal your ace GAME 3 Carpenter's gem powers Redbirds | BOX | GRADES HEYMAN: Coach says Rogers likely used pine tar VERDUCCI: Carpenter gets a career-defining win CHEN: Carpenter shows he's NL's best pitcher DONOVAN: Tigers terrible in almost every way HEYMAN: La Russa making the right moves BP: Carpenter in complete command GAME 2 Behind Rogers, Tigers pull even | BOX | GRADES DONOVAN: Series exceeds expectations so far HEYMAN: Rogers spotless with, without smudge BP: Is Rogers' success at Comerica legitimate? GAME 1 Reyes rules Tigers in opener | BOX | GRADES DONOVAN: Reyes proves himself on big stage CLOSER LOOK: Leyland lets Pujols beat him BP: Extra week of rest fails to help Tigers GALLERIES Dirt on Rogers | Top Controversies | Headlines Games 1, 2 | Game 3 | Unlikely Heroes | Walkoffs
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ST. LOUIS -- At the risk of sounding overly mystic here -- no incense was burned in the writing of this column -- the St. Louis Cardinals are now poised on the brink of their first World Series title since 1982 largely because of forces unseen and largely unknowable.

OK, so maybe the rain that soaked the turf at the new Busch Stadium in the last couple of days, making the outfield play like the 18th green at the Lost City of Atlantis Country Club, had something to do with it. Still, it took something like that, something from above, something almost otherworldly, for the Detroit Tigers to lose Game 4 of the World Series on Thursday night and for the Cards to climb to the unlikely threshold of a championship. Game 4 was so weird, with so many turns going the Cardinals' way, it was almost enough to make you believe that St. Louis is somehow predestined to win this thing.

"We played real good today. But some things happened," said Tigers' reliever Joel Zumaya after the best game of the Series -- by far -- went St. Louis' way, 5-4. "It's baseball, man. Baseball will do that to you."

The favored Tigers had this game won, almost from the get-go, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on previously unhittable Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan. But then the lights flickered and a cold wind came out of the East and voices rose from the crypt of the old Busch Stadium next door -- or, maybe I imagined all that stuff -- and the Cardinals started to come back.

They scored their first run after Suppan whiffed on a hit-and-run and the runner, Aaron Miles, still was safe at second. Game 4 hero David Eckstein -- hey, that's strange enough -- doubled to bring in Miles.

St. Louis scored its second run when Yadier Molina doubled Scott Rolen home with two outs. When Molina is having a postseason like he's having -- .308 in the Series, .327 in the playoffs -- you have to know that something's up.

And then things really turned spooky. In the bottom of the seventh, Eckstein led off the inning with a fly ball to center field that the Tigers' Curtis Granderson started to circle under before -- whoooops! -- the soggy turf somehow rose up and tripped him.

It had to be something weird like that.

"What a time to go ahead and lose my footing," said the always likeable Granderson, who had broken out a new pair of cleats just a couple of weeks ago.

"You can do everything right and then the ground still slips out from under you. I've been there," said the Cardinals' left fielder, Preston Wilson. "It's a helpless feeling. It's absolutely helpless. There's nothing you can do."

Of course, nothing bad happened when the Cardinals slipped around in the outfield. And they did slip, with Wilson and right fielder Chris Duncan both spinning out on at least one occasion each. (Wilson made a nifty slip-sliding catch just off the soaking turf in the seventh inning.)

But when Granderson wiped out in the seventh, wouldn't you know, the Cardinals' So Taguchi laid down what was supposed to be a sacrifice bunt on the very next pitch -- and Detroit reliever Fernando Rodney lobbed the ball way over the head of second baseman Placido Polanco (covering first on the bunt), scoring Eckstein with the tying run.

Wet ball? Maybe, though Rodney wasn't using that for an excuse. It was, all in all, a weird stretch of horrible luck for the Tigers, who were favored in this Series and now have somewhere around a 15 percent chance of winning it, historically speaking.

"When things happen, they happen," said Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who sounded like he was maybe launching a new bumper sticker campaign in Detroit. "That's baseball. It happens."

The Cardinals took their first lead of the game later in the inning when Taguchi scored on a sharp single to left field. Detroit left fielder Craig Monroe -- who may or may not have slipped fielding the ball -- made the throw home, but third baseman Brandon Inge cut it off, catching Albert Pujols between second and third for the final out, after the run had scored.

If Inge would have let the ball go through, it would have been a close play at the plate. Would the throw have cut down the go-ahead run? That's another mystery lost to the ages.

The Tigers, as they did in the regular season, saved the weirdest for last. After they tied the score in the eighth, Eckstein came up with two out in the bottom of the inning -- the guy was magic, I'm telling you -- and roped a 99 mph fastball from Zumaya to left field. Monroe rushed after it, lunged ... and it tipped off the webbing of his glove for a double, scoring the game-winning run.

Did Monroe lose just a little bit of footing on his way over? Detroit manager Jim Leyland thought so. But Monroe was playing in -- who'd expect Eckstein to hit it that hard? -- and the ball was hit in the perfect place.

"If I had to do it all over again, I'd make the same play. I had a great jump on it," Monroe insisted. "I saw it right off the bat, I took off ... like I said, it's a game of inches."

The outfield turf at Busch isn't likely to get any drier for Game 5, scheduled for Friday evening. Rains are expected overnight and through most of the day. The weather may force another postponement in a Series which already has seen one.

Whatever happens Friday, whenever they finish this oddest of World Series, it certainly seems right now as if the karmic Cardinals will be the ones left standing.

"You can't say anymore," Zumaya said. "It's already written."

I think he was talking about Game 4 there. But, in this weird World Series, I'm not so sure.