Through two innings of Game 1 of the World Series these St. Louis Cardinals do not look a lot like the team that put nine runs on the Los Angeles Dodgers, to say the least: Adam Wainwright struggled to get outs, and the defense struggled to get them for him, and the result was an early 5-0 lead for the Red Sox that felt much bigger than that. After Mike Napoli's double opened the scoring in the first, Wainwright and the defense conspired to load the bases again, with Wainwright falling behind 3-0 to Dustin Pedroia with one out before allowing a run-scoring single on a curveball out of the zone.
That sent Mike Matheny to the mound, although the Cardinals had yet to get any relievers loose. Carlos Beltran robbed David Ortiz of a grand slam just a few pitches later, but the damage was done.
Jon Lester, meanwhile, was about as sharp as it gets—through two innings he'd thrown 17 strikes in 22 pitches, striking out three and allowing one hit.
It's a nine-inning game in a seven-game series, but the Cardinals found themselves in a hole early Wednesday night.