The Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals provided baseball fans with a World Series that is sure to be remembered for years down the road.

Last year, the  Rangers made it to the World Series for the first time in franchise history–where they lost in five games to the San Francisco Giants. This year, the team returned for their second consecutive title series.  

The Rangers were 96-66 in regular season play and beat the Detroit Tigers for the American League Pennant.

Albert Pujols has been a shining star on the Cardinal roster since 2001; he led St. Louis to a 90-72  mark in this year’s regular season play. It was just a few months ago that the Cardinals hardly expected to advance to the post season. After an 18-8 stretch to end the 2011 season, the Cardinals advanced to post season play over the Atlanta Braves, whose heads were spinning after going 9-18 to end their season.

The World Series began Oct. 19 in St. Louis. The home team took the win in an unusually defensive game. The two offensive powerhouses only managed to score a combined five runs, with the Cardinals winning 3-2. Not wanting to go quietly in consecutive World Series, the Rangers scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning of Game 2 to beat the Cardinals 2-1.

The first game of the Series in Texas went horribly for the Rangers, who took a 16-7 beating from the visiting Cardinals. Pujols led the offensive assault by becoming only the third player in history to hit three homeruns in a World Series game. He is now in the company of legends Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth.

Once again, the Rangers responded well to a loss and managed to tie the series with a 4-0 victory on Sunday. Texas’ emerging star left-hander Derek Holland pitched an amazing eight innings to lead the Rangers to victory in a vital Game 4.

In Game 5, Texas had to come back after falling behind early on. Catcher Mike Napoli played the hero via his two RBI’s in the top of the eighth inning to secure a 4-2 Texas win.

The Series moved back to St. Louis for the last two games of post-season baseball.  Initially scheduled for Wednesday, Game 6 was moved to Thursday due to rain. This instant classic was nothing short of an epic battle between two great clubs.

The Rangers were leading into the bottom of the ninth. Cardinals’ third baseman David Freese tripled in two RBI’s to tie the game in the ninth. The Rangers again jumped ahead by two runs in the 10th, but the Cardinals fought to tie the game once again. Freese  then wrote his name in Cardinals franchise history when he forced a seventh game by putting the ball over the center-field fence for a walk-off homerun in the 11th inning.

Texas was shot for Friday’s grand finale. Game 7 was all about how the teams worked their base runners.  St. Louis only had one more hit in the game, but they ended up beating the Rangers 6-2. This brought the Commissioner’s Trophy to St. Louis for the 11th time.  

Game 6 hero David Freese was named World Series  MVP, with seven RBI’s, seven hits and four runs scored.