Three Nights in Arlington, Part 1

After game three of the series, when St. Louis beat the Rangers by a score of 16-7, I didn't feel the need to write anything about it, because the game was pretty self-explanatorty. The Rangers kept throwing Albert Pujols good pitches to hit, and he continued to hit them 400+ feet. Game four was closer, with Texas winning 4-0, but I was still feeling a little lazy. I decided that after game five, I would write a longer article about the three games in Texas, but then the debacle that will go down in history as game five happened. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anything like game five. It was the worst managed game I've ever seen. I'm going to write this, and split it up into two parts. Part one will cover games three and four, and part 2 will cover game five and all it's glory.

Game three was an exciting game, but Rangers fans won't tell you that thy enjoyed it. The Cardinals beat the Rangers by a score of 16-7. Matt Harrison started for the Rangers, and didn't have his good stuff. He left a lot of pitches in the top half of the zone, and paid for it. He only lasted 3.2 innings, and gave up five runs. After that, the Rangers bullpen kept bringing out different pitchers, but none of them could slow the Cardinals offense. Every pitcher for Texas gave up a run in game three, and every Cardinals starter had a hit, except John Jay. 

Allen Craig started the game with a bang. After knocking in runs while pinch hitting in the first two games, Craig hit a solo home run in the first inning of game three. Albert Pujols led the way though, as he had five hits in six at bats. Three of those hits were home runs, and they were all tape measure shots. He ended up five for six with four runs scored, and knocked in six.

The Cardinals first big inning was the fourth, and they got a break when Matt Holliday grounded into a double play, but the throw to first pulled Mike Napoli off of the bag. Napoli reached back and tagged Holliday, and he was out, but the umpire called him safe. Napoli also made an error later in the inning which helped the Cardinals end up with four runs in the inning. The Rangers came back in the bottom of the inning to hit two home runs off of Kyle Lohse, who also wasn't sharp, to score three runs in the inning. Lohse only went three innings, and gave up five runs. The Cardinals bullpen did manage to put up a few zeros to give the Cardinals the win though. 

Game three had a lot of pitching changes and a lot of runs scored. The jet stream was blowing out on this night, and the teams combined for six home runs. It's been the only game of the series that mirrored the League Championship Series that we saw. There was a lot of scoring, and the starters were pulled early. Throughout all of the runs St. Louis scored though, it must be a little frustrating for their fans, as they scored 16 runs in game three, but only six runs in all the other games combined. 

Game four had one obvious story. Derek Holland was outstanding. He pitched 8.1 innings, and only gave up two hits. He struck out seven, and generated 13 ground ball outs. He mixed in his fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup. He worked a lot on the inside part of the plate, and didn't let the Cardinals hitters extend their arms and drive it to right center. He kept his composure when runners got on, and pitched through the sixth with just a 1-0 lead. With a 4-0 lead, he walked Rafael Furcal with one out and the middle of the order coming up, and that was the end of the line. Neftali Feliz came in to finish the game. 

I was surprised that Ron Washington brought Feliz into the game in that situation. Derek Holland had thrown 116 pitches, but was pitching well, begging Wash to let him finish. It also wasn't a save situation, and I'm shocked that Washington went to his closer in a non save situation. 

Edwin Jackson started for the Cardinals, and he didn't look good at all. He managed to get through five innings and only give up three runs, but he walked seven batters. He didn't seem to have his control or his good stuff. He only struck out three, but only gave up three hits. During the regular season, he had a ground ball rate of 43%, but only got four ground balls to eight fly ball outs in game four. He never found anything that fooled the Rangers hitters, and they waited him out and got a lot of men on base.

The big Ranger hit didn't come until after Jackson left, however. In fact, the first pitch Mitchell Boggs threw in relief of Jackson ended up in the left field seats. Mike Napoli hit a three run homer that scored two runners that Boggs inherited from Jackson. It was a curious decision by La Russa to bring in Boggs. With two runners on and Napoli at the plate, I thought La Russa would have gone to one of his better right handed arms, either Octavio Dotel of Fernando Salas. Boggs is an extreme ground ball pitcher, generating 51% ground balls this year, so I guess La Russa was hoping for the double play, but Napoli hit a home run that put the game out of reach. 

An encouraging thing that I noticed in this game was that Josh Hamilton looked to be swinging the bat with more authority than in earlier games. He only had one hit, but it was a well struck double down the right field line in the first inning that scored Elvis Andrus. In his final plate appearance, he lined out to center field, but the ball again was hit well. When healthy, Hamilton's bat adds a lot of balance to the Texas lineup, which is important when the opposing manager plays match ups like La Russa does. Scoring that one run in the first inning seemed to lift a lot of weight off of the Rangers shoulders. Up to that point in the series, they had been outplayed, and had never put a run on the board before the Cardinals. I think that playing with a lead relaxed them a bit. They were able to be more aggressive on the bases, and more importantly, were very relaxed at the plate, which was important with Jackson being as inconsistent as he was.

Part two of this post, which chronicles game five, can be found here