His Series ticket was in the Cards

After 2,109 games, Fall Classic dream reality for Beltran

ST. LOUIS — No player, no manager, no team was going to take this night from Carlos Beltran. No way. From the moment Beltran served the Dodgers notice of his presence by twisting Clayton Kershaw’s fastball into a double in the first inning, a crammed house might have suspected it was witness to something more than the Cardinals’ advancing to a fourth World Series in 10 seasons.

The first five games of the National League Championship Series went to the judges’ scorecards. Friday night at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals and their right fielder delivered a fourth-inning, 48-pitch combination that staggered the Dodgers’ likely Cy Young Award winner for this season.

Beltran delivered the Cardinals’ first run with his second hit, an opposite- field single that scored Matt Carpenter — who prefaced the rally with an 11-pitch at-bat to begin the inning.

Two hitters later, Beltran scored from second when frustrated catcher Yadier Molina threaded a two-out single into center field. Molina had stepped into the box with one RBI in 34 postseason at-bats and spiked his bat into toothpicks after falling behind in the count 0-2.

When the Cards assumeda 2-0 lead, and then 3-0, it might as well have been 30-0. It ended at 9-0. WORLD SERIES G1 • Wed. • 7:30 p.m. Cardinals at Red Sox

Red Sox at Cardinals G4 • Oct. 27 • 8 p.m. Red Sox at Cardinals G5 • Oct. 28 • 7:30 p.m.* Red Sox at Cardinals G6 • Oct. 30 • 7:30 p.m.* Cardinals at Red Sox G7 • Oct. 31 • 7:30 p.m.* Cardinals at Red Sox

Michael Wacha turned his 12th major-league start into his second win of the series, his third of the postseason and the NLCS MVP.

“Having Wacha on the mound, even though he’s a rookie .... the way he’s pitched this postseason is amazing,” Beltran said. “All we needed to do was score early, and that’s what we did.”

Wacha has driven the bullet train to the World Series. Beltran arrives as a 36-year-old passenger in a cab that careened through five cities and three previous LCS. Friday marked the switch-hitter’s 2,109th career game, including postseason. This World Series will be his first.

Beltran has 37 RBIs and 44 runs scored in 45 postseason games. He entered Game 6 with a career playoff 1.160 on-baseplus-slugging percentage.

“I don’t know what it was, but I woke up this morning thinking something good was going to happen, that this was our day,” he said.

It ended up just that way.