The two staff stalwarts sail through the first three innings, but Carpenter runs into trouble in the 4th. Josh Hamilton doubles home Ian Kinsler with one out, and Adrian Beltre follows with an RBI single and Nelson Cruz with a run-scoring double to make the score 3-0. Wilson is impregnable through the first six, but appears to run out of steam in the 7th, when Lance Berkman leads off with a single and David Freese follows with a two-run homer to center to cut the lead to one. Ron Washington give Wilson the hook, and it doesn't go well - three relievers combine to allows three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly that drive across two more runs to give the Cardinals the lead. They take that sale one-run edge into the 9th, but closer Jason Motte allows singles to the first two Rangers, and Adrian Beltre singles home the tying run with one out before Arthur Rhodes can retire Endy Chavez with the bases loaded. The bullpens settle things down and the game moves deep into extra innings, but there are no real threats until the Rangers bat in the 14th. With one out, Cruz and Mike Napoli single, and pinch-hitter Craig Gentry legs out an infield hit to load the bases with two outs. Kinsler then rips a two-run double to left-center for his third hit to give Texas the lead, and Neftali Feliz (the 7th Rangers pitcher) pitches a 1-2-3 bottom half to give Texas the Series-opening victory. Texas 6-14-1, St. Louis 4-10-0. [scoresheet]
The visitors jump on Garcia from almost the first pitch, as Elvis Andrus doubles with one out in the 1st, goes to third on Hamilton's single, and both men score on Michael Young's sac fly and Beltre's double. But Matt Holliday hits a two-run homer in the 2nd to tie the score, and the teams trade two-run 3rd innings to get the contest off to a rollicking start. St. Louis sends Lewis packing in the 4th, when they put two singles in front of Rafael Furcal's three-run shot, and Albert Pujols singles home Jon Jay after the centerfielder's two-out double. But it was starting to look like a Series in which no lead was going to be safe, and that was certainly true at Busch Stadium this evening. In the 6th, Young and Beltre started the frame with doubles, Cruz singled home Beltre, and PH Chavez and Andrus followed with RBI singles that tied the score at eight runs apiece. Texas carried momentum into the 7th when Young led off with a base hit and Beltre whacked one out of the park, but Berkman answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to keep the game within a single run. Hamilton's RBI double kept the line moving for the Rangers in the 8th, and Feliz came on again in the 9th (as the 6th TEX pitcher of the game this time) with a two-run lead. This time, things were not so straightforward as they had been in Game One - Jay led off with a double and, after two outs and a walk, Freese singled home a run and moved the tying runner to second base. That left it up to Yadier Molina, who bounced one to Beltre at third which he fired to second for the game-ending force out. Andrus, Beltre and Jay each had four hits in the slugfest. Texas 11-17-1, St. Louis 10-14-0. [scoresheet]
After surrendering seventeen Texas runs in two games in St. Louis, the Cardinals could not have been happy nor surprised to see the Rangers come out swinging in Game Three. Young hit a two-run homer in the 1st, and the home team roped four doubles in the 2nd to score three times more to put St. Louis behind the six-ball right away. Things seemed to turn for the National Leaguers in the middle innings, when St. Louis scored four times in the 4th (Jay two-run single) and three in the 5th (Molina three-run homer) to take the lead, but the Cardinal bullpen ran into problems again in the 7th. Young hit his second homer of the game with two outs to tie the score, and then three singles and a Furcal fielding error produced two more runs for a 9-7 TEX lead. Mike Adams pitched a three-batter 8th, and Feliz did the same in the 9th (with two whiffs) to slam the door and give Texas a formidable Series lead. Texas 9-14-0, St. Louis 7-8-1. [scoresheet]
The Cardinals finally got off to fast start, taking their first early lead of the Series behind home runs by Furcal (to leadoff the game) and Freese in the 2nd to jump out by three runs. Young homered again in the 4th for Texas, but Berkman answered with a three-run blast in the 5th and Furcal singled home two more in the 6th as St. Louis pulled away to a 8-1 advantage. The Rangers scored twice in the bottom of the 7th, but Jackson and two relievers kept them in check until the end for the Cards' first win of the Series and another day of postseason life. St. Louis 8-13-0, Texas 3-7-1. [scoresheet]
St. Louis looked to keep the pressure up, but it was Texas who struck first, with Cruz homering in the 2nd and Napoli then singling Daniel Murphy home after the latter's double. Berkman doubled home one in the 4th, but Cruz answered with another solo shot in the bottom half of the inning to restore the two-run edge. That was whittled to one when the Cardinals scored on three singles in the 6th and the game went into the late innings up for grabs. But Carpenter wobbled in the 7th, allowing two singles with one out, and again the STL pen provided little relief; Mitchell Boggs allowed an RBI double to Kinsler and a run-scoring single to Andrus, and then Arthur Rhodes coughed up a huge two-run homer to Young (his fourth of the Series) that gave the home team an 8-2 lead. St. Louis made it interesting, scoring three times in the 8th on Freese's three-run homer, and once in the 9th with the help of three Feliz walks, but Mark Lowe came on with the bases loaded. one out, and a two-run lead and got Freese and Molina to ground into force plays to end the game and the Series. Texas 8-13-1, St. Louis 6-10-0. [scoresheet]
Only one game was decided by more than two runs, and the total runs scored by the two clubs were also separated by just a pair, but it somehow felt as if Texas always held the upper hand. The Rangers scored first in four of the five games, and then closed by scoring sixteen runs in the 7th inning or later. Despite a comic walk-to-strikeout ratio of 4:36, Texas hitters clubbed twenty doubles on their way to a .534 team slugging average for the Series. There were very few pitchers that came out of the Series with credit to their name, but C.J. Wilson was one of them, striking out 15 while allowing only four runs in 12.2 innings and the Rangers got outstanding long relief from Scott Feldman when the starters departed early. [Series stats]
It was a hitter's Series, and there were quite a few gaudy stat lines compiled in the five games, but Texas 1B Michael Young led the winners with six runs scored and nine RBI by belting four home runs on his way to an .870 slugging percentage. Cardinals 3B David Freese gets honorable mention in recognition of his 478/538/957 line in a losing cause.
0 comments:
Post a Comment