Baseball: Crafty Cardinals claim first blood

The St Louis Cardinals opened the World Series with a 3-2 home victory over the Texas Rangers, combining some timely hitting with stingy relief pitching to take the early advantage at a chilly Busch Stadium yesterday.

In the opening game of the Series, pinch hitter Allen Craig's run-scoring single in the sixth inning provided the winning margin for Cardinals' starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, who secured the win, yielding two runs on five hits over six innings. But five relievers took over, giving up just one hit and no runs the rest of the way.