ST. LOUIS • Those searching for omens found one early. The first words uttered within the Citizens Bank Ballpark following Roy Halladay's first pitch of the postseason to the Cardinals' Rafael Furcal confirmed something was afoot.

Temperature: 64.

An indelible number in Cardinals lore received a companion Friday night at Busch Stadium when a team that thought itself listless, even underachieving, in late August completed one of the most remarkable reversals in the game's history by defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 of the World Series.

A night after becoming the first team to rally five times in a World Series game, the Cardinals used six innings of inspiration from starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, a first-inning double by Series MVP David Freese and a third-inning bolt by replacement left fielder Allen Craig to take the lead. A two-run fifth inning built without a hit provided a cushion that four relievers didn't need as the Cardinals ran out the 11th world championship in franchise history and the second in six seasons.

"We had a 5 percent chance (to reach the playoffs) with 35 games left in the season," first baseman Albert Pujols said. "We knew we had to play great. The first five months of the season were pretty bad. But it doesn't matter. We're world champions."

Nearly a half century after the 1964 Cardinals used a two-week rush to erase a 6½-game deficit en route to a World Series championship over the New York Yankees, the 2011 version exploited the wild card to reach the postseason and bowl over three of the game's most powerful lineups.

The tournament made a hero of Freese, a pillar of Carpenter and a storybook tale of an underachieving team that found its legs and its purpose in late August and never wavered.

"This team deserves this," said Freese, who hit .348 with a 1.140 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for the Series before receiving the keys to a new Corvette.

A team that scraped into the postseason on the final day of the regular season proved impossible to evict from October. Though they were never favored against the Phillies, the Milwaukee Brewers or the Rangers, the team's conviction did not falter.

"We didn't do anything heroic tonight to win it. We showed up, were tough, and the game went our way," right fielder Lance Berkman said.

A frustrating season that gained momentum after an Aug. 25 clubhouse meeting ended when Craig strangled Rangers left fielder David Murphy's fly ball.

Moments after closer Jason Motte had entered the game to Eminem's Lose Yourself, the largest crowd in new Busch Stadium history (47,399) took the message to heart.

At one point afforded less than a 4 percent mathematical chance of reaching the postseason and rated by Las Vegas sports books as a 500-to-1 proposition to win the Series, the Cardinals overcame doubts both within and outside their clubhouse with an uncommon show of resilience, bullpen and chemistry.

Friday, Freese completed two nerveless weeks the included eight RBIs. During the four-week tournament the hometown hero amassed 14 extra-base hits, including five home runs, and scored 12 times in addition to his postseason-record 21 RBIs.

The Cardinals interrupted history to make some. By rallying from a three-games-to-two deficit, they handed the Rangers consecutive defeats for the first time in 47 games dating to Aug. 25, the same day the Cardinals began to exhume themselves from a 10½-game wild-card deficit.

The Cardinals left behind a stunned AL champion that twice closed within one strike of winning the Series in Game 6 but never found a way to finish.

Chairman Bill DeWitt celebrated the second championship during his 16-year stewardship by noting, "This is one of the great runs in baseball history."

A 90-win team used a 23-9 run to push its way into October and an 11-7 follow-up to become the fifth wild card to become champions. They got there with a reconstituted bullpen that La Russa used more than in any previous postseason.

For some the celebration was made sweeter by the presence of those who had never tasted champagne in late October. For others it was the memory of family lost. The combination proved moving for those left alone on a life raft in September.

"I believed it on the day we clinched in Houston," said outfielder Skip Schumaker. "I knew there was a reason. My dad was retiring that night (Sept. 29). It was the anniversary of my grandfather's death. It was a weird night. It kept going and kept going.

"For me personally, it was strong. I knew there was a reason for this season. I didn't tell anyone but my wife. But things kept happening. There is a reason for everything."

"This is why you keep battling," Freese said. "You get injured. You do stupid stuff. You try to stay on path. The character of guys on this team is second to none."

"It's unbelievable, amazing, incredible," said manager Tony La Russa, who captured the third World Series championship of his career. "The teams we played in the playoffs were all great teams."

A team that found itself four games over .500 with 35 games remaining found itself literally dancing on a stage Friday night.

"There are certain things you go through during a season," general manager John Mozeliak said. "There are levels of frustration and happiness. One thing about this team, it never quit. There were so many times you might have wanted to count this team out. And it kept charging."

Initially dull, Carpenter raised his career postseason record to 9-2 with his fourth win in six starts this month. Working on three days' rest for only the second time in his career, Carpenter found himself trailing after his 10th pitch and down 2-0 before his team took its first at-bat. But after allowing six of the first 10 batters he saw to reach base, Carpenter more effectively changed speeds after his offense quickly tied the game.

Thursday's offensive hero also became the thread within Friday's clincher.

Perhaps a game away from losing his position during the NL division series, Freese burned Rangers starting pitcher Matt Harrison with a two-out, two-run double in the first inning.

It was Freese who plucked the Series from doom during Thursday's ninth inning and delivered a 10-9 win with an 11th-inning home run to dead center field.

The Rangers produced four of their six hits in the first two innings but were punished for giving away the night's first out on catcher Yadier Molina's pick-off of leadoff hitter Ian Kinsler, who strayed too far on a missed bunt.

Rangers manager Ron Washington entered the Series with a reputation for abhorring intentional walks and left wearing skid marks because of them.

The Cardinals rallied for two first-inning runs in part because of an order for Harrison to pitch around first baseman Pujols with no one on and two out. However, Harrison followed by also walking Berkman to give Freese a chance to rifle a two-run double into the left-center field gap.

Two innings later the Cardinals' accidental left fielder, Craig, provided his third game-winning RBI of the Series when he pumped his second home run in as many nights, this one to right-center field, for a 3-2 lead.

Craig started only because left fielder Matt Holliday finished the postseason in a soft cast, the result of a Thursday baserunning mishap. Still, Craig leveraged 19 at-bats into one of the Series' most influential offensive roles.

The game ran away from the Rangers in the fifth inning when Washington imported reliever Scott Feldman and ordered an intentional walk of Freese to load the bases after a walk, a hit batter and a right-side grounder created the two-out predicament.

With literally no room for error, Feldman forced home a deflating run by walking Molina. Washington pulled Game 5 starter C.J. Wilson from the bullpen to hit Furcal with his first pitch, making it a 5-2 game.

And having come this far, a remarkable collection refused to let go.