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updated 12:37 a.m. ET Oct. 22, 2006

DETROIT - Anthony Reyes won’t be overlooked now.

He entered with the fewest regular-season wins of any World Series Game 1 starter. He walked off the mound with the biggest victory of his life.

“Now I can sit back and kind of relax and appreciate what I just did,” Reyes said after the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2 Saturday night.

“I was a little nervous, not too much. “Everyone told me stay focused, one pitch at a time. And I tried to focus on the mitt and not let anything else rattle me,” he said. a   The right-hander, who turned 25 last Monday, pitched into the ninth for the first time in the major leagues, allowing four hits in eight-plus innings with four strikeouts and a walk. In the first-ever World Series opener matchup of rookie starters, he outpitched Detroit’s Justin Verlander.

Showing his socks high and wearing a cap with a flat bill, Reyes’ pitches were prettier than his sartorial choices.

“That style is not attractive,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa opined. “It has something to do with his concentration and focus. I don’t think it’s going to be copied widely by the kids of America.”

Reyes said he’s been wearing his socks that way since Little League.

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“The hat helps me see a little bit, gets more light in, helps me see signs,” he said.

After giving up Craig Monroe’s double with one out in the first and Carlos Guillen’s two-out RBI single, Reyes retired 17 straight batters.

Reyes relied on his fastball more than his breaking pitches, and threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 29 batters.

“We kept getting down 0-1, and that’s a bad sign,” Tigers leadoff man Curtis Granderson said. “That’s when you have to be defensive. We played right into his hands.”

For the first time in his big league career, Reyes pitched into the ninth. He didn’t make it far into the inning — Monroe homered on the first pitch, and Reyes was pulled.

“I thought he did a good job of throwing away a little bit, but getting a lot of outs inside,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “He had excellent control and basically he jammed us a lot, and he got a lot of outs on fastballs in.”

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Reyes was selected by Detroit on the 13th round of the 2002 amateur draft but stayed at Southern California for his senior year, then was taken by St. Louis in the 15th round a year later.

“I came off an injury in college when they drafted me, so I just figured, take the summer off and just heal up and try to go back to my last year of college,” he said.

La Russa had a chance to add Jason Marquis to his World Series roster and start him in the opener.

“As time elapsed,” La Russa said, “we decided it was more reasonable for Anthony than to challenge Jason. It’s tough because Marquis has been an important part of our club for three years. That’s one of those things — not fun to make that decision.”

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With a 5-8 record and 5.06 ERA in 17 regular-season starts, Reyes had the fewest wins of any Game 1 starter in World Series history and was the first with a losing regular-season record since the Mets’ Jon Matlack in 1973.

“We actually had a coach’s dinner last night and each coach put down what they thought he would do,” La Russa said. “And there was actually two coaches that they said ’into the eighth inning.’ I thought if he went five or six with low runs that he had done a great job.”

Star struck
Just like 2004, the Cardinals opened the World Series on the road. Just like then, they’re not happy about the All-Star game being the deciding factor.

“I don’t think it’s right,” general manager Walt Jocketty said Saturday. “I’ll probably get reprimanded for saying that, but I don’t care.

“I don’t think there was anything wrong with the way it was, where you alternated. That was more fair.”

Giving the league that wins the All-Star game home field advantage began as a two-year experiment in 2003 to make the game more attractive to fans and more meaningful for teams. The idea was extended last season.

The American League has won the home field advantage for the World Series for four straight years.

Casey at the bat
Detroit DH Sean Casey went 0-for-3 Saturday night in his first action since injuring his left calf in the AL championship series opener against Oakland.

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The sweep against the Athletics and the six-day break before the World Series gave Casey enough time to get back in the lineup, but he acknowledges it didn’t do much for his legs.

“I’m slow, but now I guess I’m just a bit slower,” Casey joked.

If Casey was hurt later in his first postseason appearance, he might have missed his chance to play in the World Series.

“Some guys play their whole career and don’t make it to the playoffs, let alone the World Series,” he said before Game 1 on Saturday. “It’s like a dream come true. The World Series — it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Detroit manager Jim Leyland expected to use Casey as his DH in the first two games before putting him at first base Tuesday for Game 3 in St. Louis. He struck out, flied out and popped out in the opener.

The Tigers got Casey from Pittsburgh on July 31, the trading deadline, for Brian Rogers, a fringe prospect. Casey gave Detroit the left-handed bat it desperately needed and much-needed help at first base, where Chris Shelton fizzled after a strong start.

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