The St. Louis Cardinals have released their lineup for the much-anticipated Game 6 of the 2011 World Series:
1. Rafael Furcal (S) SS
2. Skip Schumaker (L) CF
3. Albert Pujols (R) 1B
4. Lance Berkman (S) RF
5. Matt Holliday (R) LF
6. David Freese (R) 3B
7. Yadier Molina (R) C
8. Nick Punto (S) 2B
9. Jaime Garcia (L) P
As Rob Neyer notes, much ado will wrongfully be made about the placement of Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday. The Cardinals, who trail in the World Series 3-2, typically roll with Holliday batting 4th and Berkman batting 5th. But with today's lineup flipped, it would appear as though Tony La Russa feels Holliday can no longer protect Berkman.
Well, such may be the case, but in all fairness, Lance Berkman hit 4th in over 50 games during the regular season and Holliday's cold playoffs (.570 OPS during the World Series) have not been nearly as cold as Rafael Furcal's cold season (.646 OPS in 2011), yet he is still batting lead-off.
Cardinals fans should not be surprised if Holliday -- who is well due at this point -- makes the five-hole look easy tonight.