Game sevens are a strange thing. It decides the outcome of a series, and for that reason there's a lot of hype and excitement leading up to it. However, the hype and excitement often dies down somewhere around the fifth or sixth inning when one team seems to have the game in hand, and it's simply a matter of time before it's all over. In the first game seven in the World Series since 2002, it was much as I expected it to be: an exciting start before St. Louis took control of the game and closed it out to win their eleventh World Series title.
Compared to Game Six, it was infinitely anti-climatic.
I didn't actually see the first three or four innings of Game Six, but from what I gathered it was some of the sloppiest baseball you will ever see. Dropped fly balls, booted ground balls, throwing errors, it was all there. Even a hard slide at second by Matt Holliday led to an airmail throw to first. It culminated in the top of the fifth when David Freese dropped a routine pop-up to third, leading to an RBI double by Michael Young to give the Rangers the lead.
It was at this point that I could sense that this was going to be one of those games. My friends and I immediately debated whether this would be the Bill Buckner moment of the World Series, and I knew it wouldn't be. I knew something would happen in the late innings that would completely overshadow that play.
Then Mike Napoli picked Holliday off third base with the bases loaded. Then Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back to back homers. Then Ian Kinsler got a clutch hit to put the Rangers up three. All of a sudden the Rangers had stolen the momentum and looked like they were in control of the game. The Cards went quietly in the bottom of the seventh, including what could have been Albert Pujols last at bat as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. It looked like the Rangers had it wrapped up, but somehow, I sensed that the game wasn't over. In fact, I think it was around this time when I told my friends that the way this game was going, it would probably end up going fifteen innings.
That set up the eighth inning. Allen Craig homered with one out to bring the Cardinals back within a pair. Then came a small chess game between managers with St. Louis threatening to get back in the game, but in the end they finished the eighth still down two.
The Rangers went quietly in the top half of the ninth. The Cardinals did not.
I don't really remember how it happened, but wouldn't you know it, David Freese came up with two on and two out and a chance at sweet redemption, a chance to send the memory of the botched pop up into ancient history. With two strikes, he drove a pitch off the wall in right field, just over the leaping Nelson Cruz. He ended up on third and tied the game at seven. I remember sitting there and the play seeming to happen in slow motion, as Cruz leaped and the ball just sailed over his glove.
As I predicted, the game went to extra innings.
The craziness continued. After a one out single by Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton hit a pitch that just got over the outfield wall. Hamilton had been struggling mightily, likely due to the rumoured groin injury he was nursing. He was one of the last players I expected to hit a home run. So of course, it was fitting in this game that he would put the Rangers up two runs. Again.
The bottom half was even crazier than the last. With two on and no one out, the pitcher's spot came up in the Cardinals order. Who does La Russa send? Kyle Lohse, another pitcher, to lay down a bunt after calling Edwin Jackson (also a pitcher) back from the on deck circle. Jackson was a better hitter (for a pitcher) but Lohse had more sacrifice bunts during the season. In all my years watching baseball, I can only remember Carlos Zambrano ever pinch hitting for another pitcher, and really, he doesn't count.
Lohse proceeded to hit the most brutal bunt ever, popping it towards third base. I was almost not surprised when it sailed over the head of Beltre, charging hard towards the plate from third with the wheel play on. Had Andrus not been going to cover third, it would have been disastrous; had Beltre not been charging from third, he probably would have caught the fly and maybe even turned two. It was a play that could have only happened in this game.
The next hitter, Ryan Theriot, grounded out scoring a run but again putting St. Louis down to their last out. Pujols was intentionally walked and Lance Berkman stepped up to the plate. With two strikes and the season hanging in the balance, he muscled a ball into right field, once again erasing a two run deficit with St. Louis down to its last strike. I couldn't believe it. All I could say to my friends was “I can't believe this is happening.” because I couldn't. It was completely surreal, like I was living in a dream.
Through all this, I truly wanted the Rangers to win the game, because this game would have been the only way to end the 2011 season. I knew a game seven wouldn't be half the game this was.
The weirdness continued in the eleventh inning when Jake Westbrook, who hadn't pitched in nearly a month came out of the bullpen for the Cardinals. Surprisingly he got the Rangers to go quietly, save for a Mike Napoli single. What next?
Another lightly used pitcher comes on for the Rangers, and in another strange twist of fate, David Freese led off the inning. I don't remember the count, I don't remember the pitch, but I do remember thinking “no way, no fucking way” as the ball sailed over the center field fence, ending the game. My friends and I all laughed and looked at each other in disbelief. What a game.
It was nearly five hours after the first pitch, almost one o'clock in the morning, and just like that it was over. I turned to my friend and said “Happy birthday Neil, it doesn't get much better than that.” We all smiled, and left for home, tired, but more than satisfied with the game.
I have seen some weird and crazy things in twenty-two years watching baseball. I have never seen a game like this. It was, without question, the craziest MLB game I have ever witnessed. I don't recall another game that left me shaking my head, dropping my jaw in disbelief, or jumping out of my chair like this game did. It will without question go down as one of the greatest games in World Series history. It has to. As I looked around the bar while we were watching the game, I could tell everyone else was thinking the same things as me. This game is the reason I love watching baseball. The chance that you catch a game half as good as this one is what keeps me tuning in year after year after year.
Now if only the Rangers had won, eliminating the need for that disappointing, anti-climatic game seven.
-matt
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