Casey, who batted a Series-high .529, homered for the second straight night, but St. Louis came right back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth as pitcher Justin Verlander threw away a ball for the second time in two starts. One run scored on the error and another on Eckstein’s grounder.

“I just threw it away. I had the wrong mind-set,” Verlander said. “I picked it up and said to myself ‘Don’t throw it away,’ instead of just picking it up and throwing it. I got tentative.”

Rolen, who led Cardinals’ batters at .421, added a big run with a two-out RBI single in the seventh off reliever Fernando Rodney, extending his postseason hitting streak to 10 games.

It marked the first time since the 1912 Red Sox at Boston’s Fenway Park that a team won the Series at home in a first-year ballpark. And the Cardinals (83-78) almost didn’t even make it to the postseason. They had a seven-game NL Central lead with 12 to go but lost eight of nine before recovering to finish 1½ games ahead of Houston, the defending NL champion.

Minnesota, in 1987, had set the previous low for wins by a Series winner, going 85-77.

“The team that wins a world championship is the team that played the best,” La Russa said.

As the Tigers failed in their bid for their first title since 1984, their season ended with Kenny Rogers rested and ready with no place to pitch. Rogers, who threw 23 shutout innings in the postseason, was saved by Leyland for a possible Game 6 in Detroit on Saturday.

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Weaver, cast off by the Yankees three years ago after a World Series flop and dealt to the Cardinals by the Angels in July, allowed four hits in eight innings, matched his season high with nine strikeouts and walked one before Wainwright finished for the save. St. Louis pitchers held Detroit to a .199 average over the five games.

“It’s all the belief in yourself, knowing that you’re going to work through it,” Weaver said. “Just never say die. Just keep working.”

Verlander gave up three runs — one earned — and three hits, recovering from early control problems to give the Tigers a decent effort. Throwing up to 100 mph, he walked the bases loaded and tied a Series record with a pair of wild pitches, but escaped when Ronnie Belliard hit a grounder up the middle that shortstop Carlos Guillen just got to in time to make an off-balance throw to first, beating Belliard by less than a step as Casey scooped the ball on a bounce.

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Pujols hit just .200 with two RBIs in the Series but turned in the night’s niftiest play, sprawling to snare Polanco’s grounder to first leading off the seventh, then making a one-bounce throw from his back to Weaver covering the base.

“Anytime you make big plays, it changes the momentum of the game,” Weaver said, “and I think that was a big one.”

Notes: The record for unearned runs allowed in the Series is 13, shared by the 1903 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1909 Tigers. ... Verlander was the first pitcher to lose twice in a five-game Series since Oakland’s Storm Davis in 1988.