So I Guess The Cardinals Are Serious About This

The Cardinals went into Detroit last night and took down Cousin Mose in his own barn, taking game one away from Justin Verlander and the heavily-favored Tigers.

Antonio Reyes was every bit as smooth as the bill of his cap, which Tim McCarver told me he irons, for some damn reason. Reyes scattered four hits over eight innings, which was pretty much the complete opposite of what he did in game four of the NLCS. And Justin Verlander was as shaky as Reyes was solid, giving up home runs to Scott Rolen and Albert Pujols en route to a 5-inning, 6-earned run start.

For the Cardinals, it was a quick, efficient, low-key ass-beating. The crowd was silent and the building was dead from the top of the second inning until the bottom of the ninth, when Craig Monroe added a meaningless home run.

Game two is tonight at 8:00, with Jeff Weaver (2.16 postseason ERA over 16.2 innings) going against Kenny Rogers (0.00 ERA over 15 postseason innings).

Rookie Reyes delivers Game 1 victory [MLB.com] Ronnie Belliard's Glorious 'Fro [The Birdwatch]