ST. LOUIS. (AP) — The cardiac St. Louis Cardinals are World Series champions for the 11th time after beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 of the 107th World Series. It's their second World Series title in six years.

Cardinals' ace Chris Carpenter got the win. He was pitching on three days' rest and went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits, striking out five. Four relievers followed Carpenter with Jason Motte getting the save with a scoreless ninth. Motte was six-for-six in save opportunities in the postseason.

The Cards rallied to win the final two games of the series, falling behind in both those must-win games. But that just capped a series of comebacks for St. Louis, which was written off by most experts before putting on a dramatic late-season run.

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The World Series triumph ends a wicked two-month run for the Cards, who were 10.5 games out of the playoffs in late August. They made the playoffs on the final day of the season as the wild card. They needed five games to beat Philadelphia in the first round, went six against Milwaukee in the NL championship series and went the distance against the Rangers. Texas failed in its second straight trip to the Fall Classic and has never won a World Series.

Cards manager Tony LaRussa won his third World Series title. He won in 1989 with Oakland in the American League, and with St. Louis in 2006 and this season.

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Freese named MVP for heroics, dramatics

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese, the hometown boy made good, is the MVP of the World Series. He hit a two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 and batted .348 with a homer and seven RBIs for the Series.

Freese is the sixth player to win the NLCS MVP and World Series MVP in the same year. He had a record 21 RBIs in the postseason.

His two-run double in the first inning of Game 7 tied the game at 2-2. After the Cards were down to their final strike in Game 6, Freese was the hero of that wild 10-9 Cards victory, hitting a walkoff home run in the 11th inning that forced Game 7.

Freese got some competition in the hero department from Allen Craig, whose pinch-hit single delivered the victory in the opening game of the World Series. Craig hit an opposite field home run in the third inning for the go-ahead run. Craig also saved a run in the sixth when he made a leaping catch to rob Nelson Cruz of a home run.

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Rangers fall short, again

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Oh, so close. Again.

And now it's 51 years and counting with no World Series titles for the Texas Rangers.

A day after twice coming within one strike of champagne, a glittering trophy and a championship parade in Game 6, the Rangers went as dry as an overcooked Texas T-bone in losing Game 7 by a 6-2 score.

Pitchers Matt Harrison and C.J. Wilson fizzled rather than sizzled, and the Rangers bats went silent after scoring two runs in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young.

The Rangers were 4-8 in their last 12 postseason road games. They lost the World Series to San Francisco last year.

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