MLB World Series 2011: Cardinals' Bats Must Snap out of Two-Game Funk

Despite the fact you haven't seen it in a couple of days, I assure you the 2011 World Series is still ongoing. The Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to play Game 6 on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium, but Mother Nature had other ideas.

As soon as Major League Baseball decided to call Game 6, the focus immediately turned to pitching plans. It didn't take long to reveal that both clubs were going to stick to their planned starters on Thursday, and that means Colby Lewis will start for the Rangers and Jaime Garcia will start for the Cardinals.

Concerning a possible Game 7 on Friday night, we know that the Rangers are going to turn to Matt Harrison. As for the Cardinals, they could either turn to Kyle Lohse or staff ace Chris Carpenter on three days of the rest. Tony La Russa has yet to decide.

At any rate, you get the point. Pitching, pitching and more pitching. That's seemingly all that matters.

But hey, bats matter, too. Especially if you're the Cardinals. As you may have noticed, they haven't been using theirs all that much lately.

We all remember Albert Pujols' three home runs and the Cardinals' 16-run explosion in Game 3, but the Cardinals have been pretty quiet since then. Derek Holland held them to two hits and no runs in eight-and-a-third in Game 4, and the Cardinals managed just two runs on seven hits in Game 5 against C.J. Wilson and the best and the brightest of the Rangers bullpen.

Suddenly, you look up and see that the Cardinals are batting a mere .229 in this series. Even worse, they are just 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in the last two games.

Obviously, this is a fine testament to the quality of the Rangers pitching in Games 4 and 5. It has been quite brilliant, and the Rangers are on the cusp of their very first World Series as a result.

But where there is good pitching, there is oftentimes lousy hitting. We saw a mix of both in Games 4 and 5, and it resulted in a Cardinals team that looked very little like the same team that led the National League in runs scored this season.

If it was a simple matter of pushing a button that says "Hit Better," the Cardinals would be pretty much home free in Games 6 and 7 (if necessary). Unfortunately, it's not that simple, and matters are made worse by the fact that the Cardinals are about to face a pitcher in Lewis who held them to just one run in six-and-two-thirds in Game 2. If the Cardinals fail again to solve him, they're done.

On the bright side, the Cardinals shouldn't be too frightened of facing Harrison again in Game 7 if they get that far. He was the man who started Game 3 for the Rangers, and that didn't go so well.

But the Cardinals have to get there first, and to do that they need some runs.

That might be easier said than done given what we've seen in the last two games.