St. Louis, using the simple formula that got the Cards this far (Albert Pujols + decent pitching = wins), was able to come out on top thanks to two dominant performances by Jeff Suppan and timely hitting by So Taguchi, Scott Spezio, and especially Yadier Molina. Now while this can come off as both a huge Mets failure and a surprising Cardinals win, it shouldn’t be seen as either. The Mets played to their strengths, they scored runs in bunches when they scored, and they pitched as well as could be expected considering their staff. The Cards pitched as well as they had this season, better actually, and got the timely hitting that the Mets couldn’t find. This series, in a way, was almost predictable.    

With Detroit and Oakland, there was no effort exhausted by the Tigers in their manhandling of the Athletics. Game after game of shoddy Oakland pitching led to win after win for Detroit and a berth in the World Series, just three seasons removed from the 119-loss campaign that Tigers fans remember all too well. The series loss leaves Oakland in the same place it has left the A’s the past few years: close, but not close enough. Thus Detroit is off to face the Cardinals for the championship.

Now, as this series hits its stride and shifts to St. Louis, we look for the major plot points, the storylines, the juicy talk that could ignite baseball fans to follow the World Series from the first pitch to the final out, yet we see none of it.

There have been mild stories regarding the friendship between LaRussa and Leyland, but nothing more than that. Neither team is extremely disliked throughout the league, as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets are. Nobody is talking trash, nobody is overconfident, and nobody is getting ahead of themselves.

Each team is doing exactly what is it supposed to do, and doing it well. Does this leave fans wanting, however? Do the fans want more jawing and maybe some swagger to come from either team? Who knows? This could turn out to be one of the greatest World Series of all time, and from the sounds of it, nobody will notice.