Tony LaRussa is masterful with the way he uses his bullpen. He’s proven so in the playoffs. Then came game two of the World Series. Everything may have just changed.
Both the Rangers and Cardinals put up plenty of runs in the AL and NL Championship Series, but through two games of the World Series, it has been all about pitching. In game one, it was the Cardinals bullpen that came up big, carrying the torch of Chris Carpenter, who left after six innings of work. In Thursday night’s game, Cardinals starter Jamie Garcia continued his mastery of pitching at Busch Stadium* going seven stellar innings, allowing no runs on only three hits while striking out seven and walking only one. However, the bullpen did not come up big for Tony LaRussa this time.
*Garcia has a career home ERA of 2.37 compared to a career ERA of 4.28 on the road.
The game went scoreless through six innings, though Nelson Cruz was about a foot away from hitting his seventh 2011 postseason home run in the third inning. In the bottom of the fifth, the Cardinals started to rally with two outs. Nick Punto — who has struck enough fear in the heart of Ron Washington that he actually intentionally walked the career .249/.325/.327 hitter in game one — singled to right. Jaime Garcia, who can actually swing the bat well, then drew a walk, putting Punto in scoring position with two outs and bringing leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal to the plate. Furcal hit a hot-shot up the middle, which looked to be a clean base hit off the bat. However, Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus made an incredible play, diving to his left, then turning and flipping ball from glove in a single fluid motion toward the second base bag. Ian Kinsler suddenly glided into the camera shot, snagging the lingering baseball and stepping on second base for the third out.
The prevention of that run ended up being the difference for the Rangers.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Cardinals staged their big rally of the night. With one out, storyline darling David Freese singled softly to center. Yadier Molina then flied out to deep left field, which brought the suddenly lethal Nick Punto to the plate once again with two outs. Punto, of course, came through with a base hit, moving Freese to second. With Freese in scoring position and Colby Lewis due to bat, the choice was easy. Tony LaRussa called upon Allen Craig, who roughly 24 hours prior to his second pinch-hit appearance of the World Series had singled in the game winning run for St. Louis in game one. An encore was indeed in store. Craig singled to right and Freese scored easily; the Cardinals taking a one to nothing lead in the seventh inning.
The bullpen, which had been ever so valuable to this point in the playoffs, sprung into action.
Like clockwork, Fernando Salas was the first arm out of the pen for LaRussa. He filled his role as ROOGY of the day, striking out Mike Napoli. Then, the chess pieces started to move. Ron Washington sent up David Murphy to pinch hit for Craig Gentry, LaRussa countered with Marc Rzepczynski, or, “Arzepchinski”, as Washington likes to call him. Before David Murphy could take another breath, he was headed back to the dugout in favor of right-handed hitting backup catcher Yorvit Torrealba. Torrealba struck out miserably on three pitches, whiffing by at least a foot on a strike-three slider in the dirt. With Alexi Ogando due up, another right-handed batter, Esteban German, was summoned to face the man they call “Scrabble”. One pitch and a ground-out later, the inning was over.
The top of the ninth surfaced and the Cards still led 1-0. Raging out of the bullpen came the Cardinals “closer” Jason Motte. Motte himself has become a storyline this postseason with his thick beard, big fastball and inability to see 60 feet six inches. However, even if Motte had trouble reading Yadier Molina’s sings last night, he was certainly well aware of the results of his pitches. Ian Kinsler singled, then stole second. Elvis Andrus followed with a single to right-center. During the play Albert Pujols actually makes a mistake, not getting to and mishandling the throw from Jon Jay in center, thus allowing Elvis Andrus to move to second.
Now, the go-ahead run was on second base with no outs.
Motte’s name appeared in quotation marks in the prior paragraph because, though he is actually the “closer” for the Cardinals, there is no actuall “closer” on LaRussa’s ballclub. With that in mind, the tactical manager decided to pull his “closer” in favor of a lefty-on-lefty matchup. However, the lefty stepping to the plate just happened to be “The Natural”, Josh Hamilton. Hamilton had slugged .541 off of lefties in the regular season. Groin injury and all, Hamilton pushed a hanging slider plenty deep enough into right field to score a tagging Kinsler at third and tie the game. Andrus tagged and advanced to third on the play with one out.
Then, of course, with the right-handed Michael Young due to bat, LaRussa went to a right-handed reliever, good ole number 62, Lance Lynn. Lynn has not allowed an earned run this postseason, but he doesn’t throw 100 MPH and his beard pales in comparison to that of Jason Motte. Lynn left an offspeed pitch over the outer half of the plate and Young hit the second sacrifice fly of the inning for Texas.
Just like that, the Cardinals had squandered their one run lead and now trailed by one run heading into the bottom of the ninth. The moves that had become Tony LaRussa’s positive postseason narrative had not worked in this one.
Rangers closer Neftali Feliz came in to protect the one run lead and he did just that. Despite a leadoff walk, Feliz struck out the suddenly futile Nick Punto, stuck out Skip Schumaker and induced a fly out off the bat of Rafael Furcal to end the game and send the series back to Texas tied at one game apiece.
