Act 1 - "Catching baseball is hard"
In the first six innings of the game, there were five errors. Three committed by the Cardinals and one committed by the Rangers. In four of the first five innings, the Rangers got their leadoff man on either by an error or by a walk. The strike zone early on was small, Jaime Garcia was being squeezed, especially at the bottom of the zone, and this made it hard for him to be effective. The Rangers put a lot of men on base in the early innings, but struggled to get them around to score. Through the first five innings, the Rangers stranded eight base runners, and had two more erased via double plays. The Cardinals managed to score four runs during the first act, and were fortunate that they weren't losing by three or more runs.
Ron Washington isn't doing his team many favors. Watching him handle this team is incredibly hard (that's how Wash would describe it). In the bottom of the fifth, the Rangers had runners on the corners with two out and Craig Gentry coming up to bat. Ron Washington sent David Murphy up to pinch hit for Gentry, and Murphy drew a walk to load the bases. Colby Lewis, the next batter, was then sent up instead of a pinch hitter. Now, why Wash pinch hit for a position player, and then let the pitcher hit for himself, I'll never be able to fathom, but Lewis struck out, and the inning was over. Derek Holland was available, and pitched two innings, if Lewis had been pinch hit for, Holland could have went three or four innings.
Another thing Washington is yet to realize is that Alexi Ogando isn't still a dominant pitcher. He was great in the ALCS, but has been terrible in the World Series so far. He's gotten seven outs, walked seven batters, and given up seven hits. Washington refuses to realize this, and continues to put Ogando into high leverage situations, an continues to hurt the team as a result of it. The only out Ogando recorded in game six was when Mike Napoli picked Matt Holliday off of third.
Act 2 - "Don't Count Outs"
The top of the seventh started fast. After Lance Lynn there six pitches in the inning, the Rangers scored two runs. Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back to back home runs to put the Rangers up by two. Lynn managed to get two outs in the inning, and with a man on, La Russa went to the bullpen to bring in Octavio Dotel to pitch to Ian Kinsler. Kinsler singled to center to bring home the third run of the inning. Dotel struck out Elvis Andrus to end the inning with the Rangers up by three.
Derek Holland, who was brought in to record the final out of act one, breezed through his half of the sixth, siting down Rafael Furcal, Ryan Theriot, and Albert Pujols in order. Marc Rzepcynski matched Holland in the top of the eighth, getting Josh Hamilton, Mitch Moreland, and Adrian Beltre in order to send the game into the bottom of the eighth.
Derek Holland started the bottom of the eighth against Lance Berkman. At this point, I though Wash was doing the right thing, I thought Holland would pitch to Berkman, and then Mike Adams would be brought in to race the right handers Allen Craig, David Freese, and Yadier Molina if it got that far. Well, Holland retired Berkman, but then there was no pitching change. Holland was left it to pitch to Craig for some unknown reason, and Craig responded by yanking a home run into the left field stands. But this wasn't the end, Holland stayed in the game to pitch to Freese and Molina. Freese got on, and Molina was retired, and then Mike Adams was brought in to face the lefty Daniel Descalso. Descalso and the next hitter John Jay both reached to load the bases, before Adams retired Furcal to end the inning.
Not bringing Adams in to face Craig is what I think ultimately cost the Rangers the game. Not only did Craig hit a home run to bring the game closer, but if Adams is brought in and retires two of the three righties, Craig, Freese, and Molina, then the middle of the order never gets back to the plate in the ninth. Righties have a .143/.171/.268 line against Adams this season, why he was not brought in is a decision that should haunt Ron Washington is the Rangers don't win this series.
The Rangers went quietly in the top of the ninth to send the game into act three, which was some of the most exciting, intense baseball that I've ever seen.
Act 3 - "There Will Be Runs"
Yes, there will be runs. A Grantland baseball writer wrote before the ninth inning, "I've seen too much of Neftali Feliz this year to think that this game is over." Oh, how right he was. Thanks to the elongated eighth inning, Feliz was tasked with facing the 2-3-4 hitters in the Cardinals lineup. Ryan Theriot was quickly dealt with, but Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman both reached base. After Allen Craig struck out, the Cardinals were down to their last out in the form of David Freese. After Feliz got ahead of Freese 1-2, the Cardinals were down to their last strike. Freese brought the stadium to life when he hit a triple over the head of right fielder Nelson Cruz to score both Pujols and Berkman to tie the game. With the winning run only 90 feet away, Yadier Molina hit a good ball to right, but it was caught to send the game into extra innings.
With Jason Motte still in the game from the ninth inning, the Rangers started swinging early in the count in the tenth. Four pitches got Motte through the first three hitters, the problem is, one of them hit a single, and the Josh Hamilton hit a home run. With the score now 9-7 in favor of the Rangers, and game went into the bottom of the tenth, and Darren Oliver was sent out to record the save.
This was a very interesting inning, as the Cardinals didn't have any more bench players, and the pitcher's spot was due up third. Oliver, a lefty specialist, started the inning with two left handed batters in the form of Daniel Descalso and John Jay. Both got hits, and La Russa then used Kyle Lohse to run both runners into scoring position. With the middle of the order coming up again, Wash went to his bullpen to get Scott Feldman to pitch to the upcoming right handed hitters. Ryan Theriot grounded to third to score one run, but made the second out of the inning. That created a situation where Albert Pujols came up to the plate with a righty on the mound and Lance Berkman on deck.
With Ranger's Nation screaming at their TVs not to walk Pujols, Wash decided to intentionally walk Pujols. Yes, Ron Washington decided that his best course of action as to put the winning run on base, lose the platoon advantage at the plate, and reduce the Rangers chances of winning the game. Lance Berkman came up to the plate, and just like in the ninth, St. Louis was down to their final out. After Feldman got ahead 2-2, they were again down to their last strike, but Lance came through. He singled to center to score John Jay and put the winning run on third base. Only with help from Allen Craig grounding out to third were the Rangers able to extend the game.
The Rangers came up in the top of the eleventh inning, but couldn't hold serve, and failed to score. Jake Westbrook came in for the Cardinals, and the Rangers actually had some pretty good swings against him. They got the ball in the air, but only managed one baserunner, and the game went into the bottom of the eleventh.
The game wasn't in the bottom of the eleventh for very long. The sixth pitch of the inning was drilled into the center field batter's eye for a home run by David Freese. The Cardinals won the game, and forced a game seven set for tonight. They were down to their final strike in back to back innings, but got hits both times to extend the game. In the third act of this game, seven runs were scored, and only 12 outs were recorded.
The End
The biggest repercussions coming from this game is probably the injuries. Matt Holliday hurt his hand when he slid into third base on the pickoff by Mike Napoli in the bottom of the sixth inning. Mike Napoli was also injured. He hurt his ankle when we went into second base awkwardly in the fourth inning. Nelson Cruz tweaked a groin muscle at one point. At the time of writing this, about 3:30 pm Central, it appears that Napoli and Cruz will play for the Rangers, but Holliday will be out for the Cardinals.
It's going to be tough for the Rangers to pull this series out. After the major letdown of almost having won the game in consecutive innings last night, they have to avoid coming out flat tonight, and falling behind early. St. Louis has a advantage in the pitching matchup, with Chris Carpenter on the mound against Matt Harrison for the Rangers.
Replacing Matt Holliday in the lineup with Allen Craig isn't that big of a deal, until you think about the trickle down effect. With Craig in the lineup, I'm assuming Holliday won't be available to pinch hit, unless La Russa runs out of bench players again. This means that Cardinals best pinch hit option is John Jay.
I think that the Cardinals have the better chance to win the game tonight, though. Their bullpen seems to be fresher and more reliable right now, and I worry about Napoli and Cruz's effectiveness both at the plate and in the field with their injuries. If I'm Ron Washington, I'd be reluctant to use Alexi Ogando or Neftali Feliz if the game is close. Neither has pitched well this series so far, but Wash is loyal to a fault, and will probably continue to use both players in the same rolls as prior.
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