And there will be a game seven

"What do you mean "They cut the power"? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!"

You get the feeling that anyone listening inside Braden Looper's head during that fatal inning would get an endless loop of Hudson from Aliens?

Either Scott Rolen is hurting worse than he's letting on, or he's already checked out on The Boy Genius. Sources have been hinting for a while that Rolen and LaRussa don't get along, though the former future Mike Schmidt picked a bad year to be looking for an exit strategy. The market is going to be positively awash in third basemen, and one with a bum shoulder who couldn't beat out a double-clutched slow roller in a playoff game isn't going to be the most attractive commodity.

Is it just me, or does Tim McCarver manage to suck all of the excitement out of whatever situation he's describing just by virtue of his Karo-syrup voice and moderately confused delivery? I'd love to see Fox reshuffle its booth with an eye toward a broadcast team that engendered more excitement. McCarver's soothing approach is exactly what baseball doesn't need in the postseason.

Joe Sheehan nailed it over at BP - the home plate umpiring this series has been abominable. No wonder we're seeing so many top-flight pitching performances. Batters feel they have to take a whack at everything that isn't actually burrowing underneath home plate for fear that it just might be called a strike. This series was already dependent on the massive offensive firepower on both sides to be worth watching. Why cripple Pujols, Edmonds, Delgado, et alia with strike zones that look like gerrymandered congressional districts? Nobody's tuning in to watch Jeff Suppan, and, if the home plate umps were doing their jobs, nobody would be.

If I remember correctly, pre-series wisdom indicated that the only chance that St. Louis had involved Chris Carpenter nailing down both his starts. So much for that plan, though Suppan vs. Pitcher Randomly Named Oliver looks to be a tossup.

Did Tony LaRussa actually say during his in-game interview that they were going to get a point? Runs, Tony. They're called "runs".