By Brian Ekberg
Design by Collin Oguro

See It In Action!

Straight from our sports desk, Brian and Rich talk about this year's World Series.

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The Boston Red Sox may be up 2-0 in the real World Series, but there's still a lot of baseball to be played. So far we've seen the Cardinals win a hard-fought series against the Houston Astros to take the National League crown, while the Red Sox pulled off the greatest comeback in baseball history, beating the New York Yankees after being down three games to none to win the American League pennant.

The series between the Cardinals and the Sox is full of legendary stars and intriguing matchups. Boston's pitching staff is perhaps the best in recent memory, with longtime ace Pedro Martinez joining future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling to form a devastating one-two combination. The other starters, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield--no slouches themselves--fill out a rotation that has been giving American League teams fits throughout the regular season.

The Cardinals and the Red Sox. A classic match-up of batting power and pitching skill.

On the National League side, the St. Louis Cardinals are known primarily for their bats, namely the offensive power of MVP Baseball 2004 cover athlete Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen. Rounding out the rest of the formidable lineup are catcher Mike Matheny, shortstop Edgar Renteria, and the venerable Larry Walker. The Cardinals' pitching staff, while not necessarily as intimidating as Boston's, features the starting talents of Woody Williams and Matt Morris, as well as talented closer Jason Isringhausen.

Being an impatient lot here at GameSpot Sports, we're as curious as everyone else about who will take the World Series trophy home. Can the Cardinals' powerful offensive lineup overwhelm Boston's ace pitching staff? Or will Boston finally end its decades-long championship drought and end "the curse" once and for all?

MVP Baseball 2004 cover boy Albert Pujols looked to play a big role in the MVP Baseball World Series.

What better place to answer these questions than through baseball video games? After all, these are the games the pros play in their downtime. We simulated the Red Sox-Cardinals series on our two highest-rated console baseball games of 2004, EA Sports' MVP Baseball 2004 and Sega's ESPN Major League Baseball. As you will see in game-by-game recaps of each series, both came down to the wire, with gutsy performances by both teams. The final results, however, might surprise you. Read on for our full description of both series, starting with the MVP Baseball 2004 World Series.