BOSTON – Marlon Anderson got his first start of the postseason for the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night, serving as the designated hitter in the second game of the World Series.

Anderson, who batted ninth, was the Cardinals’ top pinch hitter this season, going 17-for-51, and had six steals. He has had some success against Boston Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, going 3-for-10 in his career.

Manager Tony La Russa chose Anderson over John Mabry, who is 2-for-13 lifetime against Schilling and Roger Cedeno, who is 3-for-15.

“He can use speed and handle the bat to help manufacture something,” La Russa said. “He’s a classic true second leadoff man.”

The Cardinals actually had three leadoff men in the lineup. Edgar Renteria batted first for the third straight postseason game because of lingering concerns about Tony Womack’s back spasms. Womack has batted seventh since he left Game 6 of the NL championship series after three innings.

Womack has forgotten all about his back, though, after taking David Ortiz’s hard, bad-hop grounder off his left collarbone in the seventh inning of Boston’s 11-9 win in Game 1. Womack lost feeling in his fingers for five or 10 minutes after the hit.

“I felt like I had been hit by a truck twice over,” he said Sunday.

Womack was cleared to play after La Russa consulted with trainer Barry Weinberg.

“He knows what’s at stake,” La Russa said of Womack. “If he says he can go, he can go. I’m surprised he’s ready to go, but it just shows you he’s a tough character.”

So Taguchi got his first postseason start in left field in Game 1, with Reggie Sanders serving as DH. Sanders returned to left field for Game 2.

Hopes of a nation

Both starting shortstops in the World Series, Orlando Cabrera of the Boston Red Sox and Edgar Renteria of the St. Louis Cardinals, are from Colombia.

In a first, Colombian state TV is broadcasting the World Series. El Tiempo, in a near full-page spread, described to readers the World Series and its importance.

“I’ll certainly be watching the game,” said David Gomez, a taxi driver in Bogota. “As a Colombian, I feel very proud that two countrymen are playing in the World Series of the major leagues for the first time.”

Cabrera is from Cartagena, a walled Spanish-colonial city, while Renteria is from nearby Barranquilla, home of pop star Shakira.

They’ll try anything

Chester Nez, one of 29 original Code Talkers who used their native Navajo language to develop a secret code for World War II American radio transmissions, performed a Navajo blessing for the Red Sox before their second home game of the season in April.

With his medicine bag full of corn powder dangling from his left hand, Nez threw a right-handed strike down the middle as the ceremonial first pitch before the Red Sox played Toronto on April 10.

Nez, 83, stayed on the mound, faced east, took out some corn powder and said a blessing for the team.

“First, I did the blessing for all the spectators who were there,” Nez said. “Then, I said a blessing for the Red Sox to do well and keep winning their games from then on.”

After the Navajo blessing, the Red Sox won seven of their next nine games.

But when the team fell behind 3-0 to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series, Nez stepped outside his home, faced east, and said another Navajo blessing.

“I think that they just might come through,” he said.

Bad hop

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Red Sox groundskeeper Dave Mellor spoke before Sunday’s game, a day after David Ortiz’s hard seventh-inning grounder hit the edge of the infield grass took a wicked hop and hit Tony Womack on the collar bone, knocking him out of the game.

“The groundskeeper came up and apologized for the bad hop on Womack. I’ve never had that happen,” La Russa said. “We were playing four or five steps in the dirt, we weren’t really in, and we had a chance to get a double play or throw the guy out at the plate.

Mellor said it wasn’t really an apology. He just wanted to talk it over with La Russa and see how Womack was feeling.

“There was nothing wrong with the field,” Mellor said. “I don’t like to see anybody get hurt. It looked like it was a hard shot with some topspin.”

Womack was back in the lineup for Game 2.

“Could they erase that score that gave up that run, too?” Womack said. “That happens. That’s baseball.”

Flag waving

Six hours before the World Series returned to Boston, the outside of Fenway Park got a new feature: a deep blue American League Champions 2004 banner.

A worker from Flagraphics of Somerville rode a cherry picker high over a crowd on Yawkey Way on Saturday and hung the banner alongside the weathered banners of years past. A hearty cheer erupted as it was unfurled.

“We do all the work here, so for us it’s exciting,” said Tony Lafuente of Flagraphics, which made the nylon banner.

There were a few moments of anxiety in the crowd as the banner appeared a few inches too short. Jokes of whether that could be a metaphor or a bad omen were quickly snuffed when worker Paul Silva attached the final securing bolt.

In recent years, Lafuente admitted business could have been better for Fenway banners. “We’ve had a lot of close calls, a lot of planning,” he said.

Does he expect another call for a banner in the next week? “God willing,” he said.

TV ratings soar

Boston’s 11-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night got the highest TV rating for the first game of the World Series since 1999.

Fox Sports’ prime-time coverage of the game got a 13.7 fast national rating, up 26 percent from Game 1 between the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees last year.

An average of 23.1 million viewers watched the Red Sox win, making it the most-viewed Game 1 since the opening game of the 1996 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees was watched by an average of nearly 23.7 million people.

It was 46 percent higher than the first game in 2002, up 32 percent from 2001’s Game 1 and 19 percent better than Game 1 in 2000.

Game 1 of the Braves-Yankees World Series in 1999 got a rating of 14.2 on NBC.

It was the highest-rated Game 1 on Fox, which is broadcasting the World Series for the fourth straight year, and easily the highest-rated network program on Saturday night. In fact, it was the highest-rated Saturday night program on a broadcast network since January.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use.

Ants-eye view

The MLB.com internet site is offering a continuous feed of the pictures being taken by Fox “Diamond Cam,” its tiny camera planted in the field that offers view of the batter and catcher that previously was available only to ants or other insects crawling on the field.

The feed is delayed a bit from Fox’s telecast, and it certainly isn’t a viable way to watch an entire game – Fox only uses it to set a scene or on replays. But it is an entertaining device to look at on occasion at the website.

Those who want to view the camera should go to mlb.com, then click on the box marked “diamond cam.” A special plug-in is needed, and those going to the site are give instructions on how to obtain the device.

Inside the telecast

Chris Myers is serving as Fox’s field reporter during the Series, and says it’s harder to handle those duties for baseball than football or basketball.

“It’s much more difficult, because there’s no good place for a sidelines reporter to work,” he said. “In football, you walk up and down the sidelines. But in baseball, you have to try to find a spot in a camera well.”

His duties include updating injuries and doing interviews with pitches who have left the game, provided they are willing to talk while the game still is in progress.

“This is a very challenging job, you have to be able to think quick on your feet,” said Myers, who is the host for Fox’s NASCAR coverage but began his career in radio. “You have to keep those reporting skills. You never know what might happen.”

Myers covered the Cardinals-Astros matchup in the NLCS, and interviewed the Cards’ Jim Edmonds on the field almost immediately after he celebrated with his teammates after belting his game-winning homer in Game 6.

“I’ve found that they’re sometimes out of breath, not from running the bases but from celebrating with their teammates,” Myers said. “It’s an interesting twist.”