Cold reality for St. Louis

Maybe they had some bad chowdah on Friday night. Maybe they went hypothermic as soon as they stepped into the windy, misty chill of the Fens. Or just couldn't handle the zigzag dimensions of the lyric bandbox.

Whatever it is, these haven't been the same Cardinals who won more games (105) than every other team in baseball this year. They figure to fare much better in Missouri, but the fact is that they expected to do something here.

"We're into today," manager Tony La Russa said last night, after his flummoxed ball club was flogged, 6-2, by the Red Sox to fall behind, 2-0, in the World Series. "And right now we're disappointed that we lost two games here."

Granted, the Cardinals are up against a club that has been on a magical ride for a full week, that was coming off the most significant (and emotional) victory in franchise history and was playing in its own romper room.

But these Redbirds were supposed to be the complete ball club -- dangerous throughout the lineup, fantastic on the basepaths, airtight defensively, solid on the mound. If you gave them an extra out, they would punish you. Whoever those guys are weren't the same ones who got off the bus on Yawkey Way.

Where do you start? With the pitching, which was somewhere between wretched and undistinguished, with the two starters allowing 11 runs and 12 hits in less than seven innings.

On Saturday, we had the brutal bookends of Woody Williams and Julian Tavarez. Yesterday, Matt Morris walked three of the first six men he faced and gave up a two-out, two-strike triple to Jason Varitek. In the fourth, after plunking Kevin Millar, Morris gave up back-to-back doubles to Bill Mueller and Mark Bellhorn.

So St. Louis was down, 4-1, after trailing, 4-0, after one inning in the opener. That meant that the Cards couldn't bunt (they didn't even try last night) and couldn't steal (ditto), even with a one-legged 37-year-old pitcher on the hill. And when they did get men on base, not much happened.

The Cards had Reggie Sanders on and one out in the second when Tony Womack ripped a ball into right center that should have sent him to third. But Sanders missed the bag and had to turn back, which almost got Womack stranded between first and second.

"I think we have one of the best baserunning teams I've ever seen," said La Russa. "He just missed the bag. That's only happened one other time all year." Then Sanders, going on a hit-and-run, got doubled up at third when Mueller snared Mike Matheny's liner.

So it was left to their 2-3-4-5 sluggers to put up some runs on the ancient manual scoreboard. Albert Pujols went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles, but the people around him didn't produce.

Larry Walker, who'd been Rambo on Saturday with a homer, two doubles, and a single, was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts last night. Scott Rolen, the pennant-clinching hero, scored a run with a sacrifice fly, but was 0 for 3, keeping his Series average at .000. Jim Edmonds, now at .125, was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. His one hit in the series was a bunt.

Much of yesterday's flaccidity was due to the gutsy brilliance of Curt Schilling. "We had some chances," said La Russa, "and Schilling made some really quality pitches when we had a chance for more."

But the story of the Cardinals' lost weekend here was squandered opportunities. They couldn't get a two-out hit and they couldn't stop one. The team that can drive one error through your heart had eight opportunities handed to it by Boston fielders, a Series record for the first two games. The Cardinals didn't make nearly enough of them.

"It's more frustrating," acknowledged La Russa, "because it's something that we can control."

Now, the Cards see a championship slipping away from them.

Home cookin' can only get these guys so far.

"Our fans are going to be crazy and look to give us a boost," La Russa said. "But we are disappointed we didn't get a game or more here."