Game 4 was a very evenly played game for nine innings from a standpoint of hits, runs and guys left on base. But in the bottom of the seventh, the wet ground gave way on Curtis Granderson on the fly ball that David Eckstein hit. Then we made that one critical error on the bunt play. That half inning turned the game around.

We still came back and tied it the next inning. We've been resilient all year and we've always played the full nine innings. But then Eckstein hit another one that glanced off Craig Monroe's glove to score the decisive run. It just wasn't our night.

Eckstein was in the middle of everything. There's a reason for it when a guy who doesn't have the most natural ability has stuck around the big leagues for so long and played such important roles on winning teams. That guy's pesky and competitive.

He makes things happen. He doesn't make mistakes on defense, he has great at-bats, he doesn't chase pitches and works the count. He got himself into a 3-1 count against Joel Zumaya and got a pitch he could drive. Give him credit. David Eckstein is a baseball player.

We played a tough game, they played a tough game and they came out on top. It was just a hard-nosed World Series game that turned on a couple of late plays. But we'll show up tomorrow ready to do battle again.

If you get blown out in the World Series, it's almost like you don't belong. So even though it's tough to lose a close game like this one, it's the kind of game you want to play in the World Series.

The key for Justin Verlander in Game 5 will be keeping the ball down. He didn't have his velocity in Game 1 and still tried to pitch up in the zone. That's when he got hammered. The Cardinals are a good high ball-hitting team, so even if his arm feels good and he has his velocity, he needs to pitch down in the zone. If he gets some ground balls and some strikeouts, we should be OK.

We need to keep it simple now. As a team, we need to put a good game together and win so we can come back and play another game. We can't win three games tomorrow.

We've never faced an elimination game before, but we've been in bad predicaments before and we've always been a resilient. We'll fight back.

In his sixth season, Vance Wilson is considered one of the game's top defensive catchers and excels at handling pitchers. In 2006, his second season with the Tigers, he batted .283 with five home runs and 18 RBIs as a backup catcher.