Defensive miscues haunt Cardinals in Game 1 loss

Kozma commits pair behind Wainwright; Beltran robs slam, injures rib

BOSTON -- The Cardinals arrived in Boston insistent that this would be no repeat of 2004, when a 105-win season was soured by a World Series sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.

The organization's opportunity for redemption could not have gotten off to a more inauspicious start.

With an uncharacteristically ragged performance, the Cardinals, with ace Adam Wainwright on the mound, dropped Game 1 of the World Series, 8-1, in front of 38,345 fans at Fenway Park on Wednesday. Errors and misplays sunk the Cards into a five-run deficit before Wainwright could record his sixth out.

"We had a wakeup call," manager Mike Matheny said afterward. "This is not the kind of teamthat we've been all season. And they're frustrated [and] I'm sure embarrassed to a point."

It was St. Louis' second defensively shaky game this postseason, and the club's second three-error performance of the year, too. And in a cruel twist on a crisp night, the most costly play could just be the one that actually was made.

Not only are the Cardinals staring at the task of trying to become the third team in the last 17 years to capture a championship after dropping Game 1, but they may also have to undertake that attempt without one of October's best. Carlos Beltran, after robbing David Ortiz of a second-inning grand slam, left the game with a right rib contusion.

Beltran, appearing in a World Series for the first time in his