The Boston Red Sox have completed the ultimate turnaround in baseball and booked their place in their 3rd World Series in 10 years.
After coming dead last in the American League East the year before and letting go of their manager, Bobby Valentine in the off-season and hiring Toronto Blue Jays manager, John Farrell while keeping most of their personnel, the Red Sox won their division - and saw their bitter rivals, the Yankees completely miss out on the playoffs.
Not only that, they beat the much vaunted Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers with their supposedly powerful bullpens to progress to the World Series, capping their success with another game winning grand slam - this time to Shane Victorino - in a 5-2 win over the Tigers tonight.
In a year of tragedy for the city of Boston, the Red Sox has definitely been the good news story that the city has been looking for since the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year in April which killed 3 and mimed thousands.
The Red Sox will take on the St Louis Cardinals who are back in the World Series - again!
The Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-0 in a one-sided National League Championship Series game 6 at a rainy Busch Stadium in St Louis on Friday night.
It is the 19th pennant for the Cardinals who tie with the Atlanta Braves for most National League pennants and they will be aiming for their 12th World Series title when the series kicks off next Wednesday - they're a clear second in World Series wins.
The Cardinals played the Red Sox in 2004 - the Bambino series where the Red Sox "red"washed them 4-0, so the Cardinals will be keen for revenge this tie round.
The Cardinals are one of the Major League's most fabled teams. While they may not quite have the fame and lustre as the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox, they're still easily a baseball superpower having featured in every post-season since 2009, and even with the loss of the likes of Albert Pujols and Mark McGwire in recent years, they still have a great bullpen and batting lineup.
And they're definitely a side that doesn't give up - they were below 50% earlier in the season but came back and snatched the NL Central title from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Congratulations Cards and Red Sox and good luck!
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