Current flowing in a sea of red

ST. LOUIS -- Not too long ago (maybe two weeks), I was convinced that the Council of Baseball Gods had decided at a special session that this was to be The Year of the Tiger in major league baseball. I think it was the night Alexis Gomez -- who? -- hit a home run.

That must have been a rump session, a breakaway group, not the real McCoys. It is now rather evident that the bona fide Council of Baseball Gods has actually decreed that it is supposed to be the Year of the Cardinal.

Teams have come back from 3-1 series deficits, and have even, as we all know, extricated themselves from 3-0 holes. But when you see a graceful center fielder such as Detroit's Curtis Granderson just plain fall down, and a pitcher pick up a harmless sacrifice bunt and heave it so wildly that even Yao Ming couldn't have caught it, and a runner advance into position to score the go-ahead run by virtue of a wild pitch affixed to a strikeout, you must wonder if cosmic forces aren't abetting the undeniable skills of the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was well worth sitting through the first World Series rain delay in 10 years to have at this game. The TV ratings be damned.

There was no better drama available on anyone's television set anywhere in the country than the one that unfolded to the delight of 46,470 fans at Busch Stadium last night, as the Cardinals seized firm control of the 2006 World Series via a spellbinding 5-4 victory over the Tigers.

The Granderson shocker took place in the seventh. David Eckstein, who was at his pesty best in this one, led off with a fly to center that appeared well within Granderson's sights. But as he drifted back and to his left, he just fell down -- soddy turf, who knows? -- and Eckstein had his second two-bagger in what would turn out to be a three-double night. But an equally big shock was on tap. Pinch hitter So Taguchi laid down a bunt between the plate and mound. Fernando Rodney picked it up cleanly enough, but his throw to first baseman Sean Casey was 2 feet over the man's head. Eckstein scored the tying run. Two batters later, after two strikeouts, Preston Wilson ripped a tie breaking single to left.

"Obviously, that was a little bit of a freak inning," said Detroit skipper Jim Leyland. "But that's baseball."

The Tigers tied the game in the eighth on doubles by Pudge Rodriguez and Brandon Inge, but the chances of adding a pad run were destroyed by Adam Wainwright, who, after surrendering an Inge double (how many times does someone hit a ball that Jim Edmonds can't catch up to?), struck out both that same Alexis Gomez (swinging) and Granderson (looking at the same knee-buckling curve Wainwright threw Carlos Beltran last week to send the Cardinals into the Series).

The indefatigable Cardinals went to work on Joel Zumaya in their half of the eighth. Yadier Molina took a four-pitch leadoff walk before being forced by Aaron Miles. Zumaya then struck out Juan Encarnacion, but strike three bounced between Pudge's five-hole, allowing Miles to move to second. That brought up Eckstein, who launched one to left. On better turf, Craig Monroe might have caught the ball. But it ticked off his glove for the winning hit.

Wainwright breezed through a 1-2-3 ninth, which means that he probably deserved a win and a save.

The Cardinals can play this game. Take Wilson. He is a classic home run/strikeout guy. So what was he doing laying down his first sacrifice bunt in two years in the sixth? Trying to win the game, of course. The Cardinals just seem to have it all going. They get tough at-bats when they need them. They get clutch two-out hits when they need them. And they have enough pitching to back it all up.

The early momentum had belonged to the Tigers, who got a solo homer by Casey off Jeff Suppan in the second and who pushed across two more in the third. Rodriguez, who had come into the game on an 0-for-23 slide, had a single in the second, an RBI single in the third, and a double leading to a run in the eighth. Granderson, 0-for-the-Series coming into the game, also got off the schneid with a leadoff double and a run scored in the third. After three innings it all appeared to be going Detroit's way.

But these Cardinals do not rattle and do not lose -- I hate to say it -- focus. They know if they can get back into the game by, say, inning No. 7, they have a great shot to win. Wainwright had one pitch he surely would have liked to re think against Inge, but he was otherwise untouchable, as he has been for the entire post season. Here is a rookie replacing a high-salaried closer (Jason Isringhausen) and acting as if he's involved in some kind of identity switch with Mariano Rivera.

Year of the Cardinal? It's hard to arrive at any other conclusion.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com