It’s heavenly for Cardinals

The imperfect team arrived at its perfect ending, followed by the perfect celebration.

In a place the locals call baseball heaven, amid an ocean of red, the St. Louis Cardinals became World Series champions in five games and for the 10th time, defeating the Detroit Tigers, 4-2, Friday night at Busch Stadium.

“It’s unbelievable,” Cardinals outfielder Jim Edmonds said, wandering the infield afterward. “Just unbelievable.”

As Detroit strung lights and bunting in hopes of a Game 6, Cardinals closer Adam Wainwright threw a slider past Brandon Inge, sending 25 Cardinals into each other’s arms on an infield soon to be strewn with confetti. Wainwright followed eight taut innings by Jeff Weaver, who had his third win in the postseason, or as many as he had for the Angels in three months.

David Eckstein, the runty shortstop, clenched two fists and shouted himself hoarse. He was the Series most valuable player, less than two years after the Angels cut him loose, batting .364 and driving an offense from the top.

“I can’t lie to you,” Eckstein said, the golden trophy clutched to his chest, “I never thought I’d go to the World Series and win the MVP trophy.”

As they had in three other World Series wins, the Cardinals played well enough, played hard enough, and watched the Tigers go to pieces.

As they had in 10 previous postseason wins, the Cardinals pitched well enough, and hit just enough.

They won with Albert Pujols batting .200, with Edmonds batting .235, but with Scott Rolen answering his .000 from two World Series ago to bat .421 and Yadier Molina answering his .216 in the regular season with a World Series .412.

Mostly, however, they won with a pitching staff plugged by Weaver, whose fastball and slider had life and precision unseen in Anaheim, or Los Angeles the season before, for that matter.

So, for the first time since 1982, and two years after they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 World Series, the Cardinals put together the pitching to be better for October. Their earned-run average for the World Series was 2.05. For the postseason, in wins against the San Diego Padres, New York Mets and Tigers, it was 2.68.

“Well, since the first game against San Diego, the way our pitching rose to the occasion, front end, back end,” Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said, “it’s tough to score. You’re facing good pitching. ...

“Really, if we missed this one, it would have been tough in Detroit. This was a huge game, and [Weaver] was our biggest hero.”

Reminiscent of Weaver, circa 2002, when he led the American League with three shutouts for the Tigers, this Weaver gave up four hits and had nine strikeouts.

Holding a bottle of champagne, speaking of his championship, Weaver said, “Well, I was hoping to do it in Anaheim, but that didn’t work.... I was just very fortunate to get hot when it counted.”

Repeating a theme common in the sodden Cardinals clubhouse, Weaver added, “I don’t think there’s a guy in here that wanted to go back to Detroit.”

So they left behind a mediocre six months, for nearly four weeks. They won 83 games in the regular season and so became, statistically -- by virtue of games won and winning percentage -- the least accomplished team to ever win a World Series. They became the seventh team in seven years to win it, and completed a six-year span in which each of baseball’s six divisions produced a championship.

La Russa, who won a World Series with the Oakland Athletics in 1989, joined Sparky Anderson as the only managers to win in both leagues. Jim Leyland, who won in Florida nine years ago, vied for the same honor over the last week.

There was a sense that had the regular season gone another week, neither one of these teams would have been here. But, the Cardinals found their pitching. And the Tigers, for two series anyway, rediscovered the game that led them back from 119 losses in 2003 and at least 90 in each of the following two seasons.

They were terrible in the World Series, however. They committed eight errors, a record five by their pitchers. Placido Polanco, the ALCS MVP, did not have a hit. They batted .199 as a team.

“We lost the World Series, [but] I certainly don’t consider this a losing situation,” Leyland said. “We lost the World Series, but we made a lot of progress.

“I’m a little embarrassed we didn’t represent it a little better, but we were proud to represent the American League.”

One of the themes of the Series was the four-decade relationship between the two managers. And, while La Russa celebrated, feeling finally a part of Cardinals tradition, he remained awed by his friend.

“There’s only one manager who could have gone into New York with all those odds against them and beaten them,” La Russa said of the Tigers’ division series win against the Yankees. “He’s ridiculously special.”

Leyland stuck to his plan and his instincts and put rookie Justin Verlander on the mound, not Kenny Rogers.

Twenty minutes later, Verlander had thrown 35 pitches in a single inning, 20 of them balls.

And, yet, despite receiving three walks and advancing baserunners on two wild pitches, the Cardinals didn’t score.

Two pitches into the fourth batter of the game for Verlander, the pitching coach, the catcher and the shortstop had made trips to the mound. A reliever was warming. The Clydesdales were stretching for their victory lap.

And, yet, the Cardinals didn’t score, because in between the walks, Edmonds flied to left with two runners on, and Ronnie Belliard grounded to shortstop with three runners on.

And Verlander, whose fastball was erratic and slider unreliable, somehow, some way, was still out there in the sixth inning. Despite those errors, and the cold and wind, and the sense that every next pitch would be his last, Verlander stuck it out.

He pitched six innings, giving up one run in the second inning on a single by Eckstein and two runs in the fourth, thanks to his throwing error. The Cardinals scored again on Rolen’s two-out single in the seventh against Fernando Rodney.

Given the one-run lead in the fourth, then a two-run lead in the seventh, Weaver pushed through eight. Wainwright, who had three saves in the regular season, pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the postseason.

Like that, their 83 wins, their patched-up roster, their midseason acquisition of Weaver, became a championship.

tim.brown@latimes.com

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The series

ST. LOUIS VS. DETROIT

Cardinals win series, 4-1

* Game 1: St. Louis 7, Detroit 2

* Game 2: Detroit 3, St. Louis 1

* Game 3: St. Louis 5, Detroit 0

* Game 4: St. Louis 5, Detroit 4

* Game 5: St. Louis 4, Detroit 2