ST. LOUIS — Twice down to their last strike, the St. Louis Cardinals kept rallying to finally force Game 7 in the World Series.
David Freese completed a night of comebacks with a home run leading off the bottom of the 11th inning to beat Texas 10-9 on Thursday night.
“Man that was incredible,” Freese said. “But we fought back, we made some mistakes early on, but the way the Cardinals and we’ve all have been playing lately, you expect to come back like this. This is just a good feeling and I’m pumped were playing tomorrow.
“Just an incredible feeling, seeing all my teammates at the dish waiting for me.”
Freese had already written himself into St. Louis lore in Game 6 with a two-strike, two-out, two-run triple in the ninth off Rangers closer Neftali Feliz that made it 7-7.
“Initially I was like ‘Are you kidding me? My first AB [at-bat] off Feliz in this situation ever,’ ” Freese said. “I just beared down, got a pitch to hit. Initially I thought I hit it pretty good, I thought [right fielder Nelson Cruz] was going to grab it, so just a lot of emotions on that one.”
After banged-up Josh Hamilton hit a two-run home run in the Texas 10th, St. Louis again tied it when Lance Berkman hit a two-out single on a 2-2 pitch from Scott Feldman.
Busch Stadium was still in frenzy when Freese opened the 11th with a lead off shot over the center field wall off Mark Lowe. Freese thrust his arm in the air as he rounded first base, and the crowd was delirious.
Next up tonight, the first Game 7 in the World Series since the Los Angeles Angels beat San Francisco in 2002.
Adrian Beltre and Cruz hit consecutive home runs off Lance Lynn, and Ian Kinsler added an RBI single off Octavio Dotel as Texas built a 7-4 lead in the seventh.
Allen Craig’s second home run of the Series cut the gap in the eighth against Derek Holland. Then in the ninth, Albert Pujols doubled with one out off Feliz and Lance Berkman walked on four pitches.
Craig took a called third strike, and Freese fell behind in the count 1-2. He sliced an opposite-field drive, and when Cruz jumped, the crowd of 47,315 at Busch Stadium couldn’t tell at first whether he caught it.
Feliz then retired Yadier Molina on a fly out to right, sending the game to extra innings.
With Texas ahead 3-2 in the Series and one victory from its first title, the Rangers also wasted 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 leads. The Cardinals made three errors in a Series game for the first time since 1943, and Rangers first baseman Michael Young made two, with each team allowing two unearned runs.
Matt Holliday was picked off in the sixth at third base by catcher Mike Napoli, thwarting the Cardinals’ attempt to go ahead, and he had to leave the game because of a bruised right pinkie.
Hamilton’s RBI single had put the Rangers ahead in the first off Jaime Garcia, Berkman’s two-run home run gave the Cardinals the lead inthe bottom half and Kinsler’s run-scoring double tied it 2-2 in the third.
Cruz reached when Holliday dropped a fly ball leading off the fourth and came home when Napoli singled for his 10th RBI of the Series.
Berkman then got to first on a throwing error by Young starting the bottom half and scored on Molina’s grounder.
Freese dropped Hamilton’s pop-up to third leading off the fifth, and Young lined a pitch from Fernando Salas to the gap in left-center. An error by Young on Holliday’s sixth-inning grounder was followed by three consecutive walks, including two by Ogando.
“I’m glad I got [another chance] after looking like an idiot on that pop-up,” Freese said.
Both teams wasted numerous chances. Texas was 3 for with runners in scoring posi tion and stranded nine, and St Louis was 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 2 for 16 in Games 5 and 6.
Rangers starter Colby Lew is allowed 4 runs - 2 earned - and 3 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Texas got far better swings against Garcia than it did in Game 2, when he allowed three hits in six shutout in nings. This time, he gave up five hits and two walks, throw ing 59 pitches, and seven of the first 13 Texas batters reached base.
Just 24 of the 61 previous teams with 3-2 leads won Game 6, but 41 of those 61 teams went on to win the title. Eighteen teams trailing 3-2 in the best-of-seven format bounced back for champion ships, including 12 that swept the last two games at home.
In an effort to provide more production behind Pujols, Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa moved Berkman to cleanup and dropped slumping Holliday down to fifth.
Rangers Manager Ron Washington moved the hot hitting Napoli up one spot to seventh and had Craig Gentry hitting eighth, as he did in Game 2.
Sports, Pages 17 on 10/28/2011