(intense electronic music)
- It's October 27th, 2011.
We're in St. Louis, Missouri for Game 6
of the World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers.
Texas is up 3 games to 2,
and trying to close things out
for their 1st ever championship.
The game's tied at 9 with David Freese leading off
the bottom of the 11th inning, and the count full.
You might recall what happens next,
but to truly grasp the power of this moment,
you have to understand what's enabled the Cards
to reach this point.
The 11th inning, the World Series in general,
or even October baseball at all,
so let's rewind.
(eerie electronic music)
St. Louis is somehow still alive,
but just an hour ago, the idea
they'd have a pulse right now would've been absurd,
a level of absurdity perhaps only surpassed
two months ago with the idea
of simply qualifying for the playoffs.
(soft electronic music)
The early part of 2011 was not so kind to the Cardinals.
After picking up the club option
for the final season of Albert Pujols' contract,
their superstar 1st baseman gave GM John Mozeliak
a deadline of spring training
to work out an extension.
This was a player coming off a decade-long run
in St. Louis that solidified his place as arguably
the greatest right-handed bat in baseball history.
He won NL MVP 3 times,
finished 2nd another 4 times,
and helped lead them to a world championship 5 years ago,
so even calling him a superstar might still sell him short,
but the two sides couldn't work something out,
and it created a dark cloud over their season
as it seemed likely to be his swan song in St. Louis.
Then, over the next few months,
the injury bug attacked ‘em pretty hard.
Just a few days into spring training,
it was discovered that Adam Wainwright,
their All-Star pitcher who was coming
off back-to-back top-3 Cy Young finishes
while posting the 2nd-best ERA in the majors,
would need Tommy John surgery,
knocking him out for the entire season.
The day after he homered in their season opener,
All-Star left fielder Matt Holliday
underwent an appendectomy.
Pujols broke his wrist a couple months later
in a freak accident, though he returned
just 17 days later despite an initial projection
that he'd be sidelined 4-6 weeks.
Even manager Tony La Russa had to step away
for 6 games to treat a case of shingles,
though they still made it all the way to this point,
the 11th inning of the World Series' 6th game,
with Freese at the plate trying to help
in the Cardinals' pursuit to deliver
another championship to St. Louis,
which might mean just a little extra for Freese,
a local product who grew up
in a suburb of the city,
and was a huge Cardinals fan as a kid.
He even wore number 45 in Little League
to pay homage to legendary pitcher Bob Gibson,
and attended high school
about 26 miles away from Busch Stadium.
Freese would be drafted
by the San Diego Padres in 2006
before getting traded to his hometown team
for longtime center fielder Jim Edmonds
in December 2007, then eventually became
their everyday 3rd baseman in 2010
until he hurt his ankle in June
before an August setback ended his season.
Then, this season, while dealing with issues
to huge established names like Holliday,
Wainwright, Pujols, La Russa,
an injury to the lesser-known Freese also had
a tremendous impact.
After an outstanding 1st month of his season,
batting .365, the 3rd baseman broke his left hand
when he was hit by a pitch in Atlanta on May 1st.
That cost him nearly 2 months,
and the Cardinals had a losing record during his absence,
but they still wound up tied
with the Brewers atop the NL Central
at the All-Star Break
thanks to last offseason's signing
of longtime division rival Lance Berkman,
who was the league's best hitter
during the 1st half of the season.
In early August, about a month
after returning from the hand injury,
Freese got drilled with another pitch,
this time, in the head,
again costing him time,
but he'd return from all that to wind up here,
and the pitcher he's facing right now is Mark Lowe,
a Houston native who's got his own local ties
to his team, having gone to college
just a couple miles from the Rangers' ballpark.
He's also had his own up and down year
in his first full season as a Ranger
after a trade that sent him
and Cliff Lee to Texas last year.
He struggled over the first few months of this season,
even getting optioned to the minors for a bit in April.
Lowe got it together a little bit down the stretch,
though a hamstring injury kept him
off the Rangers roster
for the first couple rounds of the playoffs.
He obviously made the World Series roster,
but has only pitched 1 inning so far,
which was during Game 3, 5 days ago,
in which he faced Freese and allowed a hit.
Lowe being in such a high-leverage situation right now
might be surprising, but the Rangers being here is not.
They're the defending AL champs,
having made last year's World Series
before falling to the Giants in 5.
Although they lost some key pieces
from that pennant-winning squad like Cliff Lee
and Vlad Guerrero, they signed stand out 3rd baseman
Adrian Beltre, shifting Mike Young to DH,
and also fleeced the Blue Jays
in a trade for Mike Napoli.
While those two acquisitions have arguably been
Texas's two best bats this season,
Young was not pleased with his shifted role,
and demanded a trade, but nothing materialized,
so his disgruntled ass remained
while playing excellently for the 9th year in a row.
Combined with 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler,
right fielder Nelson Cruz, and reigning MVP Josh Hamilton,
the Rangers have a lethal offense.
They were atop the AL West every day
for the final 4-and-a-half months of the season,
en route to a franchise record 96 wins,
but that wasn't enough
to get homefield advantage in this series.
No amount of wins would've been
because, in Bud Selig's world,
something as trivial as who gets an inherent advantage
in the World Series shouldn't be determined
by something like, you know, merit,
but rather which league won the All-Star Game.
This year, that was the National League,
thanks in no small part
to this back-breaking 3-run homer
that losing pitcher C.J. Wilson,
the ace of those Rangers,
surrendered to Prince Fielder.
So that's why we're here in St. Louis instead of Arlington,
but truth be told, 2 months ago,
no one thought there was a chance in hell
the Cardinals would've crashed the postseason party at all,
let alone advancing all the way to this point,
the 11th inning of Game 6 of the Fall Classic.
(soft electronic music)
In addition to all the Cardinals' injuries,
their bullpen was a mess early in the year.
Closer Ryan Franklin blew four saves
by mid-April before being demoted out
of that role and eventually cut.
They cycled through a few other guys
that couldn't get it done before things steadied
once they settled on Fernando Salas,
then made a July trade
that brought in starting pitcher Edwin Jackson
and relievers Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel.
However, it didn't look like any of it would matter.
That's because they woke up on August 28th
with a 69-64 record,
trailing the Brewers by 10.5 games
in the NL Central and the Braves
by 10 games for the Wild Card spot.
But they got extremely hot, made another change
at closer, installing Jason Motte
after more than 2 months
without allowing an earned run,
and wound up winning 17 of their next 22 games,
including 5 out of 6 against the Brewers.
Nevertheless, it wasn't enough
to take the division from Milwaukee,
so for St. Louis, it was Wild Card or bust.
Fortunately, the Braves totally forgot
how to baseball down the stretch.
In that same period, they lost 14 of 23 games,
providing the Cards a glimmer of hope,
but Atlanta was working from such a cushion,
they still had a 3-game lead
with just 5 games left on each team's schedule.
The Cards won 3 of their next 4.
The Braves lost 4 of their next 4,
and they pulled dead even with 1 game left.
The Cardinals sent ace and former Cy Young-winning pitcher
Chris Carpenter to the mound for that one,
and he tossed a complete game 2-hit shutout
while fanning 11 in Houston,
possibly the greatest game
in the 36-year-old's illustrious career.
Then they played the waiting game
to see what would happen in Atlanta,
where the game reached extra innings
before Braves pitcher Scott Linebrink,
the very same dude who broke Freese's hand
with an errant fastball 5 months earlier,
allowed this little baby infield single to Hunter Pence,
miraculously sending the Cardinals
to the playoffs as the NL Wild Card.
Entering September, the only way
St. Louis could've made the playoffs was
to be the league's very best team that month,
combined with Atlanta being the league's very worst,
and that's exactly what happened.
Their reward was an NLDS date with the Phillies
and a rotation featuring three
of the NL's top-6 pitchers,
but the Cardinals ultimately forced
a winner-take-all game back in Philly.
It was a showdown between Roy Halladay
and Chris Carpenter, best friends
from years spent together in Toronto,
guys that have vacation plans together
in a couple weeks to go fishing in the Amazon rainforest.
They put on an amazing pitching dual,
and Skip Schumaker's RBI double
in the 1st inning was all
the Cards could muster against Halladay,
but that was enough,
with Carpenter tossing his 2nd complete-game shutout
in 10 days, and propelling St. Louis
to the NLCS with a 1-0 win.
There, they faced the Brewers,
and led by series MVP David Freese,
St. Louis took care of Milwaukee
in 6 games to win the pennant
and end up here, tied in extras
of the World Series,
but while the Cardinals' journey was filled
with obstacles that they overcame,
Texas had a much smoother ride to this point.
They knocked off Tampa in the ALDS in 4
to advance and face the Tigers in the ALCS.
They rode the historically red hot bat
of Nelson Cruz to a 6-game win,
setting up a World Series clash with the Cards.
The teams split the first 2 games in St. Louis.
In Game 1, Allen Craig drove in
what turned out to be the winning run
when Cruz couldn't make this play in right
before Texas evened it up
when the normally untouchable Motte
couldn't close out the game the next day.
The series shifted to Texas for Game 3,
but the Cardinals absolutely exploded for 16 runs,
led by Pujols, who had 5 hits,
3 of which could not be contained
by the field dimensions
of the Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington.
- [Commentator] How about 3 on the night?
- They took a 2-1 series lead
behind his World Series record 14 total bases,
but the Cardinals apparently only packed
enough offense for 1 game,
and combined for just 2 runs
across Games 4 and 5,
dropping both to head back to Missouri,
down 3-2 and on the brink of elimination.
After MLB decided to push Game 6 back a day
due to the mere threat of rain,
when it was finally time to play,
La Russa gave the ball to Jaime Garcia
while Colby Lewis got the nod for Ron Washinton's Rangers.
With Freese standing here now
after 10.5 thrilling back-and-forth innings
with a chance to do something heroic,
it was actually a crucial mistake of his
that helped set this table.
With the score tied at three,
Josh Hamilton popped up the 1st pitch
of the 5th inning, a routine play
that big-leaguers make in their sleep,
but Mr. Freese did not, and as a result
of his error allowing Hamilton to reach base,
the Rangers took the lead
when he got a ride home from Young.
St. Louis pulled even when Yadier Molida drew
a bases-loaded walk in the 6th,
but then things started slipping away from the Cardinals.
Instead of scoring again to seize the lead,
as one might expect with the bases juiced
and less than 2 out,
Napoli instead caught Holliday sleeping at 3rd
and picked him off,
letting Texas off the hook,
and knocking Holliday out of the game in the process
when he hurt his pinky against Beltre's cleat
trying to get back.
Then Beltre and Cruz led off the next inning
by taking rookie Lance Lynn deep
as part of a 3-run inning
that left St. Louis trailing 7-4 late.
Yet here we are with the score all tied up in extra innings.
How'd we get here?
Well, in the bottom of the 8th,
Allen Craig, on his first swing of the game,
got back one of those runs,
which he only had the chance to do
because he took over for Holliday
after his mishap at 3rd base.
Jason Motte kept the Rangers scoreless
in the top half of the ninth,
keeping the deficit at 2.
The Cards were now down to their last chance
at the dish against the Rangers' outstanding,
young, flame-throwing closer Neftali Feliz,
who's allowed just 1 run
in more than 10 innings this post season.
It didn't get off to a good start
when second baseman Ryan Theriot struck out,
but then came Pujols,
who clobbered the first pitch he saw
to left-center for a double,
bringing Berkman, representing the tying run, to the plate.
He drew a 4-pitch walk,
and then Craig went down on strikes
for the 2nd out.
Up came Freese,
1 out away from elimination,
and pretty soon, just 1 strike away from elimination.
With the Cardinals' season hanging
by the very thinnest possible thread
back in the 9th, the Rangers' primary goal
was simply to not allow an extra-base hit.
- [Commentator] And the Rangers
in their no-doubles defense.
It's similar to football's prevent defense.
- [Narrator] But on the next pitch, Freese was able
to launch this fastball to right,
where Cruz wasn't stationed deep enough,
then misread the ball as it soared over his head
for a game-tying triple
when the Cards were down
to their absolute last gasp,
so that's how we hit extras
where La Russa sent Motte out
to pitch a 2nd inning,
and even after Elvis Andrus singled off him,
Motte remained to face Josh Hamilton.
Though Motte has mostly been a rock
in the back end of the Cardinals' pen,
it's a curious choice.
That's because La Russa had at his disposal this guy,
Arthur Rhodes, a man who turned 42 years young
a few days ago, and who was actually a Ranger
earlier this season, guaranteeing him a ring
one way or another.
He's a left-handed specialist
who's only been called upon twice this series,
each time to retire just one batter,
and each time, that batter was Josh Hamilton.
But not this time,
and that was a 406-foot mistake.
- [Commentator] At the wall, Hamilton has gone deep.
- [Narrator] So again, the Cardinals had
to overcome a 2-run deficit to keep their season alive,
but they led off the bottom of the 10th
with back-to-back singles,
and a bunt moved the tying run to scoring position.
Theriot drove in one with this groundball,
but that was also the inning's 2nd out,
and after Pujols got a free pass,
that brought up Berkman, their final hope.
Rangers pitcher Scott Feldman got a 2nd strike
off this foul ball, again bringing the Cardinals
a single strike away from heartbreak,
but again, they refused to die
when Berkman slapped this single to center,
keeping a season alive that should have died
so many different times.
After the Rangers couldn't do much
against Cards pitcher Jake Westbrook,
that brings us here, to the bottom of the 11th
with the hometown kid Freese leading off
with Mark Lowe on the mound,
trying to cap an up-and-down evening
to force a Game 7 the next day
for all the marbles
about 46 minutes after already rescuing them
from certain defeat.
Lose this game, and it would be a crushing end
to the 2-month fairytale that got them to this point
while possibly marking the end of an era
with their 1st baseman,
who's been such a monumental figure
and face of the franchise for 11 years.
But win, and we will see you tomorrow night.
Welcome to a moment in history.
- [Commentator] Freese hits it in the air to center.
We will see you tomorrow night.
(TV clicks)
- [Narrator] The Cardinals went on to win Game 7
the next day to become world champs,
then saw Pujols sign
a $240 million contract with the Angels.
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