The Cardinals defy the odds to win their 11th World Championship

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 6-2 on Friday night. It was the final game of the 2011 baseball season and no it didn’t live up to the hype. It would have been hard to top Game Six and it sure didn’t although it was a close game through the early stages before the Cardinals started pulling away later in the game. Chris Carpenter started for the Cardinals and was great after a rough start. Matt Harrison wasn’t as good for the Rangers and their bullpen wasn’t that good. Texas scored two first inning runs and couldn’t score the rest of the night. David Freese set the all-time record for postseason RBI and won the World Series MVP. St. Louis was a team that never said die from September all the way through this postseason and they ended up being the last team standing.
Carpenter started for the Cardinals and pitched 6 innings giving up six hits and two runs with two walks and five strikeouts. Arthur Rhodes faced one batter and retired him, Octavio Dotel faced two hitters and got both of them out, striking out one and Lance Lynn pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. Jason Motte pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game.

Matt Harrison who took the loss pitched four innings giving up five hits and three runs with two walks and a strikeout. Scott Feldman pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two runs and three walks. C.J. Wilson pitched 1 1/3 innings striking out two, Mike Adams pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and one run with a walk and a strikeout and Mike Gonzalez pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Alexi Ogando faced one batter and struck him out.

Allen Craig had a hit, RBI and a walk for the Cardinals. Albert Pujols had a walk, Lance Berkman had a hit and a walk and Freese had a hit, two RBI and two walks. Yadier Molina had two hits, two RBI and a walk, and Rafael Furcal had two hits and an RBI. Freese had a double, Craig had a homerun. The Cardinals were 2-9 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Pujols made an error and Molina picked a runner off of first base.

Ian Kinsler had two hits and a walk for the Rangers. Elvis Andrus had a walk, Josh Hamilton had a hit and an RBI and Michael Young had a hit and an RBI. Mike Napoli and David Murphy each had a hit. Hamilton, Young and Murphy each had a double. The Rangers were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. Kinsler was picked off of first base.

The Rangers struck first again in the first inning. Hamilton had an RBI single and Young had an RBI double. That would give Texas a 2-0 lead but that would be all the scoring in the game for them. The Cardinals came right back in the bottom of the first with two runs to tie it. Freese hit a two run double. In the third Craig hit a solo homerun to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. In the fifth Molina had an RBI walk and Furcal was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 5-2 Cardinals. The Cardinals would tack on the final run of the game in the seventh inning. Molina hit an RBI single to make it 6-2 and that was how the final game of the baseball season would end.

This was a great World Series that culminated a wonderful baseball season. September was a great month for baseball and it carried into October culminating with this seventh game of the World Series. The Cardinals who were left for dead in September when they were 10 ½ games out of a playoff spot and were three games out with five to go just kept coming and became the World Champions. When you look back at this season is it truly remarkable. They defeated the best team in baseball and the heavy favorites to win it all the Philadelphia Phillies and won a Game Five in Philly against Roy Halladay. They defeated the favored Brewers who also had home field advantage and now defeated the favored Texas Rangers who were making their second straight trip to the World Series. The Rangers had a good season and a good postseason but being one strike away two times in Game Six is going to haunt them for a long time. The season is over and now the winter is upon us, it can be a cruel winter but the hot stove will be in full swing in a couple of weeks. Until the magical words are spoken again, pitchers and catchers we bid a fond farewell to the game we love, baseball.

The Cardinals one strike away from losing the World Series come back twice and force a Game 7

The Texas Rangers who twice were one strike away from winning their first World Series Title were stunned on Thursday night by the St. Louis Cardinals who survived and have forced a winner take all Game 7. Game 7 will take place on Friday night in St. Louis where the baseball season will come to a close and we will have a World Champion on Friday night. This game had so many layers to it and so many good and bad things that happened but in the end it became an instant classic. This is the kind of game that people will talk about for years, that you can tell your kids and grandkids about. This World Series game ranks right up there with the greatest of all-time. 1975, 1986 and 1992 all come to mind and this game is right there with all of them. The Rangers at least in the amount of hits dominated early and Jaime Garcia the St. Louis starter was pulled early but they could never put the Cardinals away although they had their opportunities. There were a few bad defensive plays including two dropped fly balls by the Cardinals. In the end a walk-off homerun decided the game.
Garcia started for the Cardinals and he pitched three innings giving up five hits and two runs with two walks and three strikeouts. The Cardinals used six pitchers after their starter was pulled and Jake Westbrook got the win pitching one scoreless inning and giving up one hit. Jason Motte the closer threw two innings in the game but gave up two runs on two hits and a walk. He came into a tie game because they were at home. The other relievers had good and bad outings, it was a mixed bag for the Cardinals.

Colby Lewis started for the Rangers and pitched much better then his opponent but he also got a no decision. Lewis pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up three hits and four runs with only two of them being earned. He walked three and struck out four. Alexi Ogando got charged with a blow save, he pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two walks. Derek Holland a starter pitched two innings in this game and gave up only a run on two hits. The Rangers used five other pitchers and there was a mixed bag with them also. Neftali Feliz the closer blew the save giving up two hits and two runs in an inning. He also walked one and struck out two, he had the Cardinals down to their last strike but couldn’t put them away. Scott Feldman also got charged with a blown save giving up a hit and a walk in 2/3 of an inning. Mark Lowe took the loss, facing one batter and giving up a homerun.

Lance Berkman and David Freese were the offensive stars for the Cardinals. Berkman had three hits, three RBI and a walk. Skip Schumaker had a hit, Albert Pujols had a hit and a walk and Matt Holliday had two walks. Allen Craig had a hit and an RBI, Freese had two hits, three RBI and a walk and Yadier Molina had a hit, two RBI and a walk. Nick Punto had a walk, Daniel Descalso had two hits and John Jay had two hits. Pujols had a double, Freese had a triple and Berkman, Craig and Freese each had a homerun. The Cardinals were 3-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. Holliday got picked off of third base. Holliday, Salas and Freese all made errors in the game. The Holliday and Freese errors were both botched pop ups.

The Rangers had several hitting stars but their biggest star Josh Hamilton had three hits and three RBI. Ian Kinsler had two hits, two RBI and a walk, Elvis Andrus had two hits and Michael Young had two hits and an RBI. Adrian Beltre had a hit and an RBI, Nelson Cruz had a hit and an RBI and Mike Napoli had two hits an RBI and three walks. Craig Gentry had a hit and David Murphy had a hit and a walk. Kinsler and Young had doubles. Beltre, Cruz and Hamilton each hit a homerun. The Rangers were 4-15 with runners in scoring position and they left 12 men on base. Young made two errors and Napoli picked off a runner at third base.

In the first inning Hamilton had an RBI single to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the first Berkman hit a two run homerun to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. Kinsler hit an RBI double in the second to tie the game at two. Napoli hit an RBI single in the fourth to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the fourth Molina hit a ground ball and a run scored to tie the game at three. Young hit an RBI double in the fifth to give Texas a 4-3 lead. In the sixth the Cardinals tied the game again, this time on a Molina RBI walk. In the seventh inning Beltre and Cruz hit back-to-back homeruns to give Texas a 6-4 lead. Kinsler hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 7-4. In the bottom of the eighth Craig hit a solo homerun to bring the Cardinals closer, making it a 7-5 game. At the time that seemed insignificant but it wasn’t. In the ninth the Cardinals were down to their last strike and Freese hit a two run triple to tie the game at seven. In the tenth inning Hamilton hit a two run homerun to give the Rangers a 9-7 lead and then in the bottom of the tenth the Cardinals tied it again. Ryan Theriot hit an RBI groundout to make it 9-8 and once again down to their last strike Berkman hit an RBI single to tie the game at nine. The Rangers went quietly in the 11th and Freese hit a walk-off homerun to give the Cardinals the 10-9 win in the bottom of the 11th inning.

This game became an instant classic and unless you were there or witnessed it on T.V. you would never believe it. It had so much in one game and now sets up a dramatic end to the baseball season. Game 7 is winner take all and anything can happen, it is amazing that a long crazy baseball season can come down to one last game. I would expect another good game because this has been a great World Series, it will be hard to top Game Six but they will try their best. The Rangers are searching for their first World Title and the Cardinals are looking for their 11th. The Cardinals last won it all in 2006 and the Rangers never as first the Washington Senators and then the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals have won the second most titles behind the New York Yankees 27. The starters for Game Seven will be Matt Harrison for the Rangers and Chris Carpenter for the Cardinals. There may be a lot of pitching changes in this game because there is no tomorrow and all hands are on deck. You can see anyone pitch in this game and any position player get into the game. There is no reason to leave anything on the table when you don’t have another day to worry about. It will be interesting to see how Game 7 measures up to Game 6, it will be hard to top but these two teams will try and close out a memorable World Series with another memorable game.

Rangers win Game Five and move one win away from a World Championship

The Texas Rangers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 4-2 on Monday night. The win put the Rangers up 3-2 in the series and they can wrap it up with a victory on Wednesday night in St. Louis. This has been a great World Series and feels like it will or should go seven games, we will see what happens on Wednesday. The pitching was good again and the difference in the game was clutch hitting by the Rangers and lack of by the Cardinals.
Chris Carpenter started for the Cardinals and pitched well. He was sailing along until he gave up a homerun to Adrian Beltre in the sixth inning. Carpenter pitched seven innings giving up two runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Octavio Dotel took the loss pitching 1/3 of an inning giving up one hit and two runs with a walk and a strikeout, Marc Rzepczynski pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and striking out one and Lance Lynn gave up a walk without recording an out. Jason Motte pitched 1/3 of an inning striking out the only batter he faced.

C.J. Wilson pitched 5 1/3 innings for the Rangers giving up four hits and two runs with one of them being earned. He walked five and struck out three. Scott Feldman pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one, Alexi Ogando pitched one inning giving up two hits and three walks with a strikeout and Darren Oliver recorded the win pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout. Neftali Feliz picked up the save pitching an inning walking one and striking out two.

Yadier Molina was the hitting star for the Cardinals as he had three hits and an RBI. Rafael Furcal had a hit, Allen Craig had a walk and Albert Pujols was walked intentionally three times. Matt Holliday had a hit and two walks, Lance Berkman had two walks and David Freese had a hit. Skip Schumaker had a hit and an RBI and Nick Punto had a walk. The Cardinals were 1-12 with runners in scoring position and they left 12 men on base. Carpenter made an error.

The Rangers offense was well balanced but Napoli delivered the big blow. Ian Kinsler had two walks, Elvis Andrus had a hit and Josh Hamilton had a hit and a walk. Michael Young had a hit, Adrian Beltre had a hit and an RBI and Nelson Cruz had a hit and a walk. David Murphy had two hits, Napoli had a hit and two RBI and Mitch Moreland had a hit and an RBI. Young and Napoli had doubles and Moreland and Beltre had a homerun. The Rangers were 2-7 with runners in scoring position and they left 10 men on base. Murphy and Wilson each made an error.

In the second inning the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead. Molina hit an RBI single and Schumaker hit a ground out scoring another run. The Rangers scored a run in the third inning on a solo homerun by Moreland to make it a 2-1 game. It would stay 2-1 until the sixth inning when Beltre got a hold of a hanging curveball from Carpenter and deposited it into the seats to tie the game at two. In the eighth Napoli hit a two run double to give Texas a 4-2 lead and that would be the final score.

The Rangers now lead the best of seven series three games to two. The Rangers after losing the first game at home have come back and won the last two. The teams will have a day off on Tuesday and then resume the series on Wednesday night. The Rangers can wrap up the series with a victory and if not there will be a Game Seven on Thursday night in St. Louis. This has been a terrific World Series and that continued in Game Five, it seems like there should be a game Seven in this series the way it is going. Pujols was intentionally walked three times in this game and I expect that to continue after his three homerun game the other night. If the Rangers do win the World Series it will be their first World Championship. Napoli became the second player to have four multi-RBI games in a World Series since 1960. He joins Mickey Mantle in that group. He is hitting 308 with two homeruns and nine RBI in the series. He is a leading candidate for MVP if the Rangers win the series. The other big story of the game was the lack of clutch hitting from St. Louis. You can also credit the Rangers pitching for that, but they were 1-12 with runners in scoring position. The team that has won Game Five in the World Series when tied at two games each has gone on and won the series 26 of the previous 39 times.

Derek Holland pitches the game of his life as the Rangers even the series at Two

The Texas Rangers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 4-0 on Sunday night. The Best of seven World Series is now tied at two games each and ensures at least a six game series. Derek Holland started for the Rangers and was outstanding, Edwin Jackson pitched a pretty good game for the Cardinals but was wild. The big hit in the game came off the bat of Mike Napoli. Albert Pujols after going 5-5 with three homeruns was hitless in this game.
Holland pitched 8 1/3 innings giving up two hits and no runs with two walks and seven strikeouts. Neftali Feliz pitched 2/3 of an inning, walking one and striking out one. Holland won the game, he pitched the best game of his life. Edwin Jackson pitched 5 1/3 innings for the Cardinals giving up three hits and three runs. He walked seven and struck out three. He took the loss in the game. Brandon Boggs pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up two hits and one run with three strikeouts. Jake Westbrook pitched one inning giving up one hit and he walked one.

Ian Kinsler pitched one hit and one walk, Elvis Andrus had two hits and Josh Hamilton had a hit and an RBI. Michael Young had a walk, Nelson Cruz had a hit and two walks and David Murphy had two walks. Napoli had a hit, three RBI and two walks. Hamilton and Andrus had a double. Napoli hit a homerun and the Rangers were 1-8 with runners in scoring position. The Rangers left eight men on base. Kinsler was caught stealing.

Lance Berkman had the only two hits of the game for the Cardinals. Rafael Furcal had a walk, Allen Craig had a walk and Nick Punto had a walk. Berkman had a double. The Cardinals were 0-4 with runners in scoring position and they left four men on base.

The Rangers got on the board first in the first inning with an RBI double from Hamilton. The Rangers had a 1-0 lead until the sixth inning when they scored three more to take a 4-0 lead. Napoli hit a three run homerun in the sixth and that would complete the scoring in the game as the Rangers won the game 4-0.

The World Series is now tied at two games each and there will be at least a sixth game. Game Five will be on Monday night in Texas with C.J. Wilson and Chris Carpenter starting the game. The story of this series so far has been the pitching. Game Three became an offensive game and Pujols was the story with the three homeruns but other then that game the pitching has been up to the task in the other three games. If Holland had completed the shutout he would have been only the third lefty to throw a two-hit shutout in World Series history. Warren Spahn and Whitey Ford are the only two that have done it. Ron Washington the Rangers manager said “We needed him to go out there and pitch well, and he did, and he showed the world what he’s capable of doing.” The Series will conclude in St. Louis on Wednesday in Game Six or Thursday in Game Seven if necessary. This World Series has been very entertaining and now it becomes a best of three.

Pujols three homers power the Cardinals to victory in Game Three

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 16-7 on Saturday night in Game Three of the World Series. Albert Pujols took over the World Series as he hit three homeruns. He was hitless in the World Series coming into this game. He took a lot of criticism after not speaking to the media after Game Two. Pujols answered back the best way he could with his bat and now they won’t be criticizing him. Pujols tied four World Series records and broke one, simply amazing. The pitching which has been so good for both teams through the first two games was non existent in this game as the offenses exploded.
Matt Harrison started for the Rangers and took the loss. He pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up six hits and five runs with three of them being earned. He had one walk and three strikeouts. Scott Feldman pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and three runs with two walks, Alexi Ogando pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three hits and four runs with three of them being earned, two walks and a strikeout and Mike Gonzalez pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up one hit and two runs with one walk. Mark Lowe pitched one inning giving up two hits and one run with a strikeout and Darren Oliver pitched one inning giving up one hit and one run with two strikeouts.

Kyle Lohse pitched three innings giving up five hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts. Fernando Salas pitched one inning giving up four hits and three runs, Lance Lynn got the win pitching 2 1/3 innings giving up three hits and one run with two walks and two strikeouts and Octavio Dotel pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up one hit and striking out one batter. Mitchell Boggs pitched one perfect inning with a strikeout.

Adrian Beltre led the Texas offense with four hits and an RBI. Ian Kinsler had a walk, Elvis Andrus had two hits and Josh Hamilton had a hit. Michael Young had two hits and two RBI, Nelson Cruz had a hit, two RBI and a walk and Mike Napoli had a hit and two RBI. David Murphy had a walk and Yorvit Torrealba had two hits and a walk. Young and Beltre each had a double and Young and Cruz each hit a homerun. The Rangers were 3-9 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Kinsler, Napoli and Andrus each made an error. Pujols was the star of the Cardinals offense and the game. Pujols had three homeruns, five hits and six RBI. Rafael Furcal had a hit, Allen Craig had a hit, RBI and a walk and Matt Holliday had a hit and a walk. Lance Berkman had two hits and a walk, David Freese had two hits, two RBI and a walk and Yadier Molina had two hits, four RBI and a walk. Ryan Theriot had a hit, RBI and a walk, Freese had a double and Molina had two doubles. Craig also had a homerun besides Pujols three. The Cardinals were 4-13 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base. Jay was caught stealing and Holliday had an outfield assist.

The Cardinals scored one run in the first inning and it was a 1-0 game through three. In the fourth inning is when it started getting crazy the game. The Cardinals scored four runs, Freese hit an RBI double and Jay reached on a force attempt and an error with two runs scoring. Theriot hit an RBI single and it was 5-0 Cardinals. The Rangers came right back in the bottom of the fourth with three runs. Young hit a solo homerun and Cruz hit a two run homerun to make it 5-3. In the fifth inning Freese grounded out to score a run and Molina had a two run double making it 8-3 Cardinals. In the bottom of the fifth Young hit an RBI double, Beltre hit an RBI single and Napoli hit a sacrifice fly making it 8-6. Pujols hit a three run homerun in the sixth and Molina hit a sacrifice fly to make it 12-6 Cardinals and the rout was on. Pujols hit a two run homerun in the seventh to make it 14-6. Napoli hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh making it a 14-7 game. In the eighth Molina hit an RBI double making it 15-7 and Pujols hit a solo homerun in the ninth to complete the scoring at 16-7.

The Cardinals have now taken a two games to one lead in the best of seven World Series. The Cardinals have also taken back home field advantage with the win. The next two games will also be in Texas on Sunday and Monday nights. The teams will have a travel day on Tuesday and resume the series on Wednesday and Thursday if necessary. I wouldn’t expect the Rangers to lose all three at home so this win by the Cardinals pretty much assured a return trip to St. Louis for Game Six. It was a history making night, the game was very long though and went very late so I am not sure how many people witnessed the history being made. It is amazing to me how baseball can be so different day to day and that is what makes it a special game. The first two games of this series were all pitching and this one was all hitting, will the series go back to the pitching being good or will the offense take over the rest of the series now. Pujols after the game had this to say”It is an honor to be in there, in the same category as those guys . But I just thank god that I was able to come out today and help our ball club to win and hopefully I can do that tomorrow again.” The Cardinals are now halfway home to their 11th World Series Championship in their history. This was the third highest scoring game in World Series history. Cruz hit his seventh postseason homerun in this game which is one short of the single season record held by Barry Bonds(2002) and Carlos Beltran(2004). He has 13 career postseason homeruns which are tied for 10th all-time. It will be interesting to see how Game Four is going to go on Sunday night, will Albert Pujols even have a chance to hit in that game or will the Rangers walk him?? Stay tuned to find out on Sunday night.