BOSTON – Two innings into the opening game of the World Series, it was hard to imagine the St. Louis Cardinals as a 97-win team, the National Leagues best, a club which had erased the game Pirates and Dodgers to get to the big dance. The effort in the 8-1 Red Sox victory lacked the feel of the much ballyhooed "Cardinal Way." It felt more like a get-it-out-of-your-system night for St. Louis. The problem is there are no throw away games at this time of year and the opponent is too strong to be given freebies. "We had a wake up call," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "That is not the kind of team that weve been all season. And theyre frustrated. Im sure embarrassed to a point. We get an opportunity to show the kind of baseball we played all season long and it didnt look anything like what we saw tonight." Then, Matheny offered his team a public wake up call of his own. "Youre going to have games like that periodically. But if you begin to accept that, then this could not really go anywhere." Boston scored three times in the first off the Cardinals Adam Wainwright. Jacoby Ellsbury walked. One out later, Dustin Pedroia singled. David Ortiz came to the plate and rolled a potential double play grounder to second baseman Matt Carpenter. Shortstop Pete Kozma, with what would be his first of two errors early in the game, dropped Carpenters throw to second. All hands were safe. Not so fast. Second base umpire Dana DeMuth inexplicably ruled that Kozma had caught the ball and bobbled the transfer, ruling Pedroia out. Red Sox manager John Farrell bolted from the dugout faster than he left Toronto a year ago. DeMuth heard Farrell out and then agreed to confer with his five colleagues. The call was overturned and Pedroia was ruled safe. The umpires got the call correct. "I think the one thing we strive for is to get the call correct," said Farrell. "And I think based on their group conversation, surprisingly to a certain extent, they overturned it and I think got the call right." Farrells use of the term "surprisingly" fit with Mathenys take on the play. Its not customary for umpires to confer on subjective safe/out calls. This was out of the ordinary. "Thats not a play Ive ever seen before," said Matheny. "And Im pretty sure there were six umpires on the field that had never seen that play before either. Its a pretty tough time to debut that overruled call in the World Series. Now, I get that theyre trying to get the right call. I get that. Tough one to swallow." Mike Napoli came up with the bases loaded and slammed a three-run double off the Green Monster. Boston scored two more in the second on the strength of three hits and another Kozma error. The lead off single of the inning, by Stephen Drew, was a pop up in front of the pitchers mound that Wainwright called for before backing off. The ball dropped, untouched, as Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina stared blankly at each other. "Im under that ball," said Wainwright. "Its one of those plays where youre taught to give the ball away to somebody elses call but not the one thats right to you like that. I made the mistake of calling it and then waiting for someone else to make the play instead of just taking charge. I didnt take charge on the mound and I didnt take charge on that play and it cost us a lot of runs." As if their poor play wasnt damaging enough, star right fielder Carlos Beltran left the game after the second inning, having played hero moments earlier. David Ortiz, back at the plate in the second inning and with the bases loaded, drove a ball to right centerfield, headed for the visitors bullpen. Drawing comparisons to Torii Hunters effort on an Ortiz grand slam in Game 2 of the ALCS, Beltran tracked the ball back to the wall and unlike Hunter, made a great catch. In doing so, Beltran slammed into the wall. He was taken to hospital for a CT scan and an x-ray, both of which were negative, and Beltran is listed as day-to-day with deeply bruised ribs. "I think hes a little down right now," said general manager John Mozeliak. "Certainly disappointed. Obviously wanted to play in this and to have to come out of the game before the game ended was disappointing to him. "Obviously you want to see your club at full strength," said Mozeliak. "You dont want to go into this thing where you lose somebody early on so well just have to see but hopefully hell be ready to go." Boston got a top notch performance from ace left-hander Jon Lester, who buoyed by the early run support tossed 7 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Junichi Tazawa and Ryan Dempster carried the final four outs. The Red Sox, dating back two World Series appearances to 2004, have now won nine straight games in the Fall Classic. The Cardinals, suddenly, are compromised. Assuming Beltran, St. Louis two-hole hitter, plays, he wont be anywhere near 100 per cent. Allen Craig, a first baseman serving as designated hitter under American League rules and batting cleanup, returned from a sprained foot to play his first game since suffering the injury on September 4. Hes working to get his timing back when there isnt much time. Game 1 was a case of St. Louis playing awfully more than it was Boston dominating. The Cardinals can take solace in that. But if they dont produce a much better level of play in Thursdays Game 2, it could pave the way for a short series. "One of the things weve always preached, if we dont play clean baseball its hard for us to win," said Mozeliak. "We gave a lot of outs up tonight and they obviously took advantage of it and we came up short." Brian Sutter Jersey . The Raptors (15-15) posted six road victories last month and have won seven of their last nine games overall. Toronto visits the Washington Wizards on Friday night. 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The Suns also sent guards Kendall Marshall, Shannon Brown and Malcolm Lee to Washington so the deal will work financially.INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixteen fights into his UFC career, Martin (The Hitman) Kampmann has 11 wins and a few regrets. In October 2010, he flubbed a chance to fight for the welterweight championship when the Danish-born 170-pounder opted to take on Jake Shields at his own game -- on the ground. Shields went on to win a split decision. Last time out, Kampmann (20-6) stepped into the cage against top contender Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks with his head not on straight. Issues outside of training weighed on his mind. Hendricks knocked him out in 46 seconds. On Wednesday, sixth-ranked Kampmann has another chance to rise up the welterweight ranks when he takes on No. 2 Carlos (The Natural Born Killer) Condit in the main event of a televised UFC card in Indianapolis. "I think I still have a lot left to prove," Kampmann said. "The UFC hasnt seen the best of me, at all. So thats what I intend to show." The bookmakers see Condit (28-7) as more than a 2-1 favourite. "I love to prove the oddsmakers wrong," said Kampmann. "Ive done that countless times before and Id love to do it again on Wednesday." The winner could find himself in the title mix once the dust settles from UFC 167 in November, when Montreals Georges St-Pierre defends his crown against Hendricks and No. 3 Rory (Ares) MacDonald, a native of Kelowna, B.C., who trains out of Montreal, takes on No. 9 (Ruthless) Robbie Lawler. "Ill be happy to fight either St-Pierre or Hendricks," said Kampmann, who now calls Las Vegas home. "Of course Id love to get a chance to avenge a loss and fight Hendricks again. Id also like to fight GSP since hes the top guy in the division, hes been champion for so long." Both Condit, 29, and Kampmann, 31, have plenty of weapons. Physically the six-foot-two Condit has an edge in height and reach over the six-foot Kampmann. But both fighters didnt come much further than seven-foot-two Roy Hibberts shoulder when the Indiana Pacers centre, an MMA fan, dropped in on the fighter workouts Wednesday. "I think were both very well-rounded and were able to finish the fight wherever the fight goes," said Kampmann. "We both like to go for the finish and that makes a great recipe for a good fight," he added. Both fighters are known for their resolve and refusal to break. MacDonald took it to Condit for the first two rounds when they met at UFC 115 in Vancouver in June 2010, only for Condit to rally in the third and put the young Canadian away. In 2012, Kampmann was in trouble against both Jake (The Juggernaut) Ellenberger and Thiago (Pitbull) Alves before turning the fight around to win by TKO and submission, respectively. Both men are prickly on their feet with sharp striking and powerful knees. Condit has the more dangerous kicks and is likely to pull something unorthodox and nasty out of his bag of tricks. Just ask Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy and Dong Hyun (Stun Gun) Kim. Both can finish you via submissions with St-Pierre noting that Condit is especially tricky on his back, baiting his opponent into a position he can then take advantage of. Condit is susceptible to the takedown. Hendricks and St-Pierre combined to take him down 19 times in his last two fights. But Hendricks is a former NCAA wrestling champion and GSP is the UFCs most effective takedown artist. Kampmann won a split decision when the two first met in April 2009 in the UFC debut for Condit, a former WEC champion. The Dane took Condit down five times in that fight but he only managed five takedowns in his next nine fights. "Thats a long time ago, but it was a tough fight," said Kampmann. "I remember I was getting pretty tired in the second round but in the third roundd I got a second wind.dddddddddddd The first two rounds were pretty close but the third round, I think I won it decisively and I think thats the reason I got the decision win." Kampmann has gone 5-4 since, with the Hendricks defeat snapping a three-fight winning streak. Condit is 5-2 since the Kampmann defeat thanks to the recent Hendricks and St-Pierre losses. Kampmann rues the loss to Hendricks, mainly because he didnt get a chance to show any of his skills. FightMetric, which tracks UFC bouts, had Kampmann at zero significant strikes. Hendricks had three, which including a thundering left that put Kampmann down and another to the chin as he lay prone. "I didnt show up mentally for that fight," Kampmann said "I was there but I wasnt there and I paid dearly for it. You cant go in and not be mentally ready in a fight like that when youre fighting a heavy hitter. If he connects, then youre going to get hurt. "Ive done that in the past with other fights where Ive been knocked down, getting hit, and -- coming back -- have won it. But its not a good thing to go long-term so Ive changed up. Im going to come in and be ready to go from the beginning this time around." Kampmann did not detail what was weighing on his mind against Hendricks, other to say there were issues outside the fight world. "I thought I left it outside but maybe I didnt." He insists this time he is ready both physically and mentally for the five-round challenge. Over his career, Kampmann has been criticized for being drawn into his opponents game at the expense of his own strategy. "Ive definitely made mistakes in the past," Kampmann acknowledged. "Especially when I fought Shields. Thats the fight Im most disappointed in my own performance. Because I pretty much game that fight away. I was beating him ... Even the way I fought, I still thought I beat him. Because he didnt really do nothing other than lay on me and hug me." Despite that, in the cage after the fight, Kampmann pointed to the lack of damage on his face in making his case for the win. Two of the three judges disagreed. "I was trying too much to submit him, which was stupid," Kampmann said of Shields, a jiu-jitsu expert. "I should have just pounded him out." A former engineering student, Kampmann started out in karate and Thai boxing. He began to add submissions to his arsenal in 2000, studying tapes at first and then training in Sweden and parts further afield. He made his pro debut in February 2003. After meeting American fighter Mike Pyle in Denmark, he hooked up with him in Las Vegas to train. The World Fighting Association was looking for a middleweight and Kampmann got the job on two days notice. He stopped Edwin Aguilar in two minutes 43 seconds in July 2006 to up his record to 9-1. The UFC noticed and he was fighting in the organization a month later. What started as a hobby for Kampmann, who moved down to welterweight after a 2008 loss to Nate (The Great) Marquardt, has become a career. "Im happy," he said. "I can live and do my hobby and I can compete at the highest level of the sport. "But I still have goals left that I want to achieve. Beating Condit, finishing Condit is one of them. Of course, getting the title is a goal of mine too." Kampmann has endured some tough times along the way. In early 2008, not having access to health insurance, he removed stitches from under his eyebrow using sterilized tweezers, nail clippers and a mirror. A survivor inside and outside the cage, he says his path to a world title consists of small steps. 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