It has finally come.  It all started back on April 1, and has been a marathon of games where teams fought for this moment.  In the seventh month of the season 28 teams are at home making their plans for the winter while two teams ready to play for the biggest prize in Major League Baseball, the World Series Trophy.  For the first time since the 1999 season the two teams who entered the playoffs as the number one seed are facing off in the World Series, and even though these were the two best teams when the season ended they are two teams who weren’t necessarily expected to be in this position before the season began.

The Boston Red Sox were coming off of the worst season in recent team history and dumped enough payroll to fund the Houston Astros for years.  They were expected to bounce back and have a nice season, but in a division that included an always strong Tampa Bay Rays team, a Baltimore Orioles team that made the playoffs the year before, the Yankees and the big spending Toronto Blue Jays they were not expected to make waves.

The St. Louis Cardinals were a playoff team last year, but they squeaked in last season by making the wild card and made waves before losing to the San Francisco Giants, the eventual World Series Champions.  This season the division was supposed to be just as tough as the Cincinnati Reds, the 2012 NL Central Champions, got better in the offseason and the Pittsburgh Pirates were going to be a threat.

In the end both teams surprised and ended the season with the top records in their respective leagues.  In the process, both teams went through the LCS in six games, and had to beat two of the best pitching staffs in the league.

The matchup could be one of the best in recent history.  Both teams are built on young home built cores and pitching staffs that can go with anyone in the league, as they proved in the LCS.  The difference in these teams, though, is in their starting lineups.  While both teams have home grown cores, the Cardinals only send out two men in their starting lineup that did not come up through the farm system, Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran.  The Red Sox have a core that is led by a former MVP and a former MVP runner up in Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, but these two are surrounded by guys brought in via free agency like the heart and soul of the team David Ortiz and character guys who were brought in this year like Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino.

These lineups are where this World Series will be won.  The pitching staffs match up well against each other.  Each team has young starters who can dazzle and veterans who have been here before and bullpens who have been solid all year long.  The team that wins this series is going to be the team that can do what their opponents in the LCS rounds couldn’t, break through against these pitching staffs.

For the Cardinals it is as simple as getting on base for the most productive hitter in modern postseason history, Beltran.  In order for that to happen, though, Matt Carpenter is going to have to come out of his postseason funk and get on base because the .167 postseason batting average is not going to cut it in the World Series hitting leadoff in front of Beltran.

For the Sox it’s just as simple, but it’s their most clutch hitter that is going to need to turn his postseason around, Ortiz.  Yes, Big Papi has three home runs in the playoffs including a game tying grand slam, but he is only hitting .200 so far in the postseason and the Sox are going to need his heroics to go along with the consistency that Napoli and Ellsbury have shown if they are going to get past the Cards.

In the end, this series has the makings of an all-time classic on paper.  Both teams are as evenly matched up as any two in recent history and both teams have the flair for the dramatic.  For example, the Sox hit two grand slams to lead to two of their LCS wins while the Cards won the World Series two years ago on a walk off in the 11th inning of game six.  With the World Series you never know what could happen.  The series could go all the way down to the seventh game or one team’s offense could come out swinging and make the best pitcher in the league look like a scrub like in 2012.  In the end there is only one thing you can be sure of, this will be must see TV.  The series starts Wednesday and the last series of the Major League Season begins.