Keeping Score: Statistics to Watch at the World Series After analyzing the championship games or series of the N.F.L., N.B.A., Major League Baseball and N.H.L., and the major finals in golf and tennis, we identified 50 championships characteristics in our book, "Who Will Win the Big Game? A Psychological and Mathematical Method. In particular, our work relates key statistical factors to concepts of sports psychology like leadership, consistency and minimizing errors. Based on this research, we focused on factors that might help predict the winner of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, which begins Wednesday night. Leadership: The World Series finalist with the better top of the rotation, measured by total victories by its top two pitchers, has won 64 percent of the World Series over the past 24 years (there was no postseason in 1994). This factor favors the St. Louis Cardinals, whose top two starting pitchers, Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn (or Shelby Miller), combined for more wins (34) than Boston Red Sox; top starters, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz (27). Edge: Cardinals Consistency: Our research points to batting average as a good indicator of consistency. The team with the higher league rank in batting average has won 72 percent of the past 23 World Series. Boston (.277) and St. Louis (.269) were second in their respective leagues in this department. Edge: Even Defense: Over the past 24 years, the team with the better defense, as measured by league rank in fielding percentage, has won 64 percent of the World Series. The advantage goes to St. Louis (.988, tied for first in the N.L.) over Boston (.987, tied for fourth in the A.L.). Big-Game Experience: Big-game experience has had a positive relationship with winning championships across all major North American sports we have studied. On average, the team had played for a championship in the previous three years won more than 60 percent of the time across all major sports. But in baseball over the past 24 years, the team with more big-game experience has won only 47 percent of the time. The Cardinals won the World Series two years ago, so the experience factor, for what it's worth, goes to St. Louis. Carlton J. Chin, a portfolio strategist and fund manager, and Jay P. Granat, psychotherapist, are authors of "Who Will Win the Big Game? A Psychological & Mathematical Method. They have previously written about the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, the N.B.A. finals and the N.H.L. Stanley Cup finals.