2011 World Series Fun Facts
The 2011 World Series was the 107th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was played between the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals, with the Cardinals defeating the Rangers in seven games to win their 11th World Series championship. It was notable for the cliff-hanging Game 6, when the Cardinals came back from two-run deficits twice and won it in 11 innings, 10–9.
The Series began on October 19, earlier than the previous season so that no games would be played in November. The Cardinals enjoyed home-field advantage for the series because the National League won the 2011 All-Star Game 5–1 on July 12. The 2011 World Series was the first seven-game World Series since 2002.
The Cardinals made their first World Series appearance since 2006, when they defeated the Detroit Tigers four games to one to win their National League-leading 10th World Series title. This was manager Tony La Russa's sixth World Series appearance as manager and his third such appearance with the Cardinals. The Cardinals' last postseason appearance was in 2009, where they were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series. They finished the 2010 season with a record of 86–76 (.531), finishing in second place in the National League Central standings, five games behind the Cincinnati Reds.
The Cardinals spent much of the early part of the 2011 season in first place in the NL Central standings, but dropped to second place for good on July 27. On August 25, the team trailed the Atlanta Braves in the NL Wild Card standings by 10 1⁄2 games. The Cardinals amassed a 21–9 record from August 26 to September 27, while the Braves were 10–19 over that same interval. Meanwhile, on September 23, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central division title. On September 28, with the Cardinals and Braves tied atop the Wild Card standings on the last day of the regular season, the Cardinals routed the Houston Astros 8–0, while the Braves lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 4–3 in 13 innings, securing the Cardinals' second wild card postseason berth in franchise history. St. Louis finished with a record of 90–72, six games behind the Brewers in the NL Central but one game ahead of the Braves in the Wild Card. They defeated the Phillies in the National League Division Series three games to two, and then defeated the Brewers in the National League Championship Series four games to two.
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