St. Louis ? World Series television ratings are as meager as the Detroit Tigers’ offense.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ 5-0 victory Tuesday night was the lowest-rated Game 3 in Series history, and the three-game average also was the lowest ever.

Game 3 drew a 10.2 fast national rating and 17 share, Fox said Wednesday, down 7 percent from the 11.0 rating last year for the 7-5, 14-inning win by the Chicago White Sox over the Houston Astros. The previous record low for Game 3 was the 10.8 rating for the Anaheim Angels’ 10-4 win over the San Francisco Giants in 2002.

The three-game average of 9.9/17 was down 7 percent from the previous low of 10.6/19, set last year.

“We’re going for a World Series title. I’m not worried about the TV ratings,” Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander said.

In St. Louis, the game had a 51.9 rating and 66 share, and in Detroit it received a 37.1 rating and 52 share. Fox spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said that because smaller markets were involved in the World Series this year, about 1 million fewer homes from the local teams were tuned in.

Asked about lower postseason ratings last week, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he didn’t want to leap to conclusions.

“I’m not overly concerned,” he said. “The teams’ television ratings all year have been spectacular. Let’s wait until the World Series is over.”

He cited baseball’s new seven-year deals with Fox and Turner Sports, which will bring the sport a total of about $3 billion from 2007-2013.

“We’ve now renewed all our contracts for seven years and had lots of competition,” Selig said, “so apparently the people in the television business like what they’re seeing.”

The national rating is the percentage of U.S. television households tuned to a program, and each point represents 1,114,000 homes. The share is the percentage of households watching a broadcast among those homes with televisions in use at the time.