The Rangers turn the tables on the Cardinals and win Game Two by One Run

The Texas Rangers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 2-1 in Game Two of the World Series on Thursday night. Jaime Garcia and Colby Lewis started and they were both great. The Rangers bullpen was a little better though and that is what decided the game. Jason Motte has been so good for St. Louis but not in this game and he took the loss. The offense once again was not there for either of the teams. It is amazing how everyone thought it would be an offensive series and so far that hasn’t been the case at all.
Lewis pitched 6 2/3 innings for the Rangers. He gave up four hits and one run with two walks and four strikeouts. Alexi Ogando pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit, Mike Adams who got the win pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk but no runs and Neftali Feliz got the save pitching an inning and giving up a walk with two strikeouts.

Garcia pitched seven innings for the Cardinals. He gave up three hits and no runs with a walk and seven strikeouts. Fernando Salas struck out the one batter he faced, Marc Rzepczynski pitched 2/3 of an inning with a strikeout and Motte took the loss giving up two hits and two runs without recording an out. Arthur Rhodes got credit with a blown save, he pitched 1/3 of an inning getting an out and Lance Lynn retired both batters that he faced.

Ian Kinsler was the star of the offense for the Rangers. He had two hits and a walk. Elvis Andrus had a hit, Josh Hamilton had an RBI and Michael Young had a hit and an RBI. Adrian Beltre had a hit, the Rangers were 1-2 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Kinsler had a stolen base and he made an error.

Nick Punto was the only player on the Cardinals with a multi-hit game. Punto had two hits, Rafael Furcal had a hit and Lance Berkman had a hit. David Freese had a hit and Allen Craig had a hit and an RBI. Furcal had a double and the Cardinals were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and they left nine men on base.

There was no scoring in the game until the seventh inning. The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single from Craig. In the ninth the Rangers scored two runs to take the lead. Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly and Young hit a sacrifice fly. Kinsler hit a bloop single and stole second just beating the throw to start the inning. Andrus singled and it was first and third no outs. Rhodes came on to replace Motte at that point which was a little peculiar considering Motte is the closer and has been so good in the postseason. The two sac flies followed and that was how the game would end after Feliz walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth and then got the next three batters out.

The World Series is tied at one game each with the series shifting to Texas now. The two teams will have an off day on Friday and then resume play on Saturday. The third game will be at 8:05PM Eastern time, 7:05 Central time. The win by the Rangers was the first win in the World Series by a team trailing in the ninth inning since Game Seven of the 2001 World Series by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matt Harrison vs. Kyle Lohse will be the pitching matchup for Game Three. Young had this to say “For us to come back in the ninth there and win this ballgame, it’s huge for us. Going back home, we know what our ballpark’s like with 50,000 people, it goes crazy in the postseason. So we’re looking forward to being back there and I know we’re going to feed off of it.”