PD what is going on with the Cards?

[SykkBoy]

They're just being outplayed
The Red Sox are like a steamroller, taking advantage of every break given to them.

The Cardinals also lack a strong dominating type pitcher. This is the problem the Braves have always had when reaching the offseason: having that strong, dominating type pitcher. Finesses pitchers do fine over the course of a season, but can get eaten alive in a short series. Their top pitcher, Chris Carpenter, also got injured at the wrong time.

The baserunning blunder was done by a pitcher who's normally not used to being on the basepaths and I'm sure the pressure of already being down, his thoughts were more about his pitching than baserunning.

That also seemed to be the spark that Pedro needed, because after that, he becaame a pitching machine. His fastball was obviously not as good as normal, so he kept going to that devestating curveball (big props to Varitek for calling a damn good game and not letting him throw the mediocre fastball more often).