WITH A LITTLE help from the umpires and a lot from the lacklustre St Louis Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox hold the advantage after game one of the 2013 World Series.

A season before Major League Baseball is expected to extend its use of instant replay, the six-man umpiring crew on duty Wednesday evening huddled together to discuss whether or not Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma had forced an out on a slow grounder by David Ortiz.

The evidence seemed pretty clear:

Via: ESPN

Despite it looking as if Kozma dropped the catch, umpire Dana DeMuth thought he had made it. Thankfully, his five colleagues disagreed and overturned the decision.  The ruling did not please St. Louis manager Mike Matheny and his mood can only have worsened after Mike Napoli took advantage of the flipped call with a three-run double to deep centre.

The Red Sox added to their 3-0 lead with two more runs in the second with the first coming on another fielding error by Kozma to set up Dustin Pedroia’s RBI single.

Boston’s fifth came soon after through a sacrifice fly from David Ortiz  though it could have been a lot worse for the Cardinals who had Carlos Beltran to thank after the outfielder reached over the bull pen wall with his glove to make a catch which stopped a grand slam home run.

Via: ESPN

Beltran’s play came at a cost though and he was forced to leave the game with bruised ribs soon after.

Ortiz did homer in the seventh and Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester backed up his offence, limiting the Cardinals to just five hits over 7 2/3 innings and struck out eight as Boston look to win their third World Series in a decade.

Game two takes place tonight and the Cardinals will hope to bounce back with rookie sensation Michael Wacha on the mound.

Additional reporting from AFP.

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