MLB World Series 2011 Schedule: Winner of Game 5 Will Win Series

The winner of Game 5 between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers will go on to win the World Series.  

For the Texas Rangers, a win tonight puts the pressure on the Cardinals to win two straight games in front of their fans. The pressure on the Cardinals to not only avoid elimination in one game, but two games will be too much for this team to overcome.  

For the St. Louis Cardinals, a win tonight sends the ballclub back home needing only one more win to secure their second World Series Championship in the last six years.  

The Rangers have not had to play in an elimination game where they were the ones trying to save their season in this postseason. In the first two games of this series, St. Louis dominated both, but only came away with one victory. 

Game 5 will feature the two starting pitchers from Game 1’s thrilling opening contest. Rangers ace C.J. Wilson takes the mound tonight in a ballpark that he actually has a worse earned run average in.  

On the road C.J. has a 2.31 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP, compared to his home stats of a 3.69 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP.  

C.J. will try to put his last outing against the Cardinals behind him. He was beaten by Carpenter in Game 1 of this series. "I think you have to look at every start as in its own little bubble," he said. "There's nothing I can do to un-lose a game." 

In Game 1, his pitching opponent, Chris Carpenter, was only able to throw 87 pitches in a victory. There was some concern about the pitcher's elbow, as Carpenter said,  

"I felt fine, and the pitch count situation isn't—it doesn't matter—I believe it doesn't matter if you throw 120 or 80, or whatever. It's the quality of pitches and the difficulty of the stressful pitches that you throw," he said. "There wasn't a whole lot of stressful pitches for me. It was a battle, but I was able to get through it pretty well, and I feel fine. I felt great throughout the last few days." 

Two pitchers who will have their teams' season resting in their hands. Will the sore elbow of Carpenter result in his Cardinals having to win two games in a high-pressure Busch Stadium?  

Or will the poor pitching performances by Wilson at home force the Rangers into an almost-impossible situation, winning two elimination games on the road?

Either way, whoever wins tonight will be holding up the World Series trophy after Game 6. 

Thanks for reading, you can follow me on Twitter: @tjmcaloon