It Looks Like World Series Will Be a California Affair

Say this in a whisper.

“The I-5 World Series. It’s coming.”

The San Francisco Giants beat St. Louis, 4-1, Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the National League championship series and come home to Pac Bell Park for the next three games.

The Angels split the first two games with the Twins at the Metrodome in the American League championship series and are home for the next three games.

The Angels took three in a row from the Yankees last week. Is it too much to expect them to do the same against the Twins?

It’s too soon to think that the St. Louis Cardinals will lose to the Giants, isn’t it?

A night after Kenny Lofton caused a nice near-brawl with his anger over an inside pitch, Rich Aurilia hit two homers and accounted for three of the Giants’ four runs.

His first homer came in the first inning and seemed to suck the air right out of Busch Stadium.

It’s too soon to promo the “All Wild Card, All The Time” World Series.

It’s too soon to expect the Angels to continue pounding doubles and triples against all comers.

It’s too optimistic to think that the weak outing against Twins’ pitcher Joe Mays was just an aberration and that the Angels will keep hitting against Minnesota the same as they did against the Yankees.

It’s too soon to imagine Bonds twirling his bat in Edison Field, facing Troy Percival in the ninth, Angels ahead by one.

It’s too quick to give up on the Cardinals, isn’t it?

Chuck Finley pitches next for St. Louis and how badly Finley must want to get to the World Series and face so many of his old teammates.

It’s too much to think the Giants will keep doing everything right.

They’ve been doing everything right all September. They never gave the Dodgers a chance to breathe, a minute to hope. They latched on to the wild-card spot and just kept winning.

Walk Barry Bonds? Fine. Benito Santiago will knock in the runs. Or Aurilia will do it first. He has 11 RBIs in the playoffs.

It sounds like the Cardinals are beaten. Manager Tony La Russa kept saying “I don’t know how he did it, pitching so well after all that time off. My guy did great. He really, really pitched well.”

La Russa was referring to Woody Williams, his starter. Williams pitched twice in July, once in August and four times in September while struggling with a strained oblique muscle. He hadn’t pitched since Sept. 20 and when Aurilia cracked a ball over the wall as the second batter faced by Williams, it seemed like a long night for the Cardinals.

And it was, but not because of Williams.

It’s because the Cardinals don’t have enough hitting. Not as much as the Giants.

It’s because the Cardinals don’t have enough nerve. Not as much as Giant Manager Dusty Baker, who tried a squeeze play Thursday. “That was big,” Aurilia said.

It’s too far-fetched to think that California will own the World Series, isn’t it?

The Giants and Angels have been competing under playoff pressure since August. Every at-bat, every pitch, mattered. So October is nothing different, just more of the same.

The Twins, they coasted in. The Cards, they sauntered in.

The Braves and the Yankees weren’t tough enough to break the Giants and Angels.

But it must be too early to think the Cards and Twins aren’t tough enough either.

Is it greedy to hope?

California had the best of the NBA playoffs. Lakers-Kings won’t be topped for a long time and who even remembers Lakers-Nets?

It’s almost unfair to long for Giants-Angels.

Who will Dodger fans root for?

They’ll certainly root against the Giants. But can they root for the Angels? Or will they turn off the television and go to the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl and root for college football instead? Not a bad choice, but they’ll be missing the party.

And that’s getting so far ahead.

Before the I-5 series comes the NoCal-SoCal weekend, playoff baseball north and south. By Sunday the Midwest could be finished, the Twins and the Cardinals sent home after valiant efforts.

It’s not too soon to think the Giants are in. No team has lost the first two games of a seven-game series at home and come back to win. Goodbye Cardinals.

Maybe it’s too soon to put the Giants on I-5 south and headed for Anaheim. It is, isn’t it?

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com