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didn't read.
Originally posted at PlaymakerOnline.com:
From the Top 10 Games of 2011:
1. World Series Game 6: So Close, So Epic
Sadly, this year’s list and last year’s list have something in common. The best and most memorable game of the year was a loss for the Texas team that played. But while they did lose, they provided one of the most entertaining games in the history of the World Series.
The Texas Rangers didn’t go through a ton of internal changes between their two trips to the World Series, except that they went from first-timers and underdogs to overwhelming favorites. When Nolan Ryan predicted that his Rangers would beat the Cardinals in six games, I honestly thought that he was being modest. With the exception of CJ Wilson, most of the starting rotation and bullpen looked untouchable. The defense was great and players were killing the ball up and down the lineup, particularly Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli.
Going into Game 6 in St. Louis, Texas had already recovered from the thumping they took at the hands of Albert Pujols by winning the last two in Arlington. They looked poised to win their first ever championship, the first for the Lone Star State.
From the start, pitching was out the window. This game was going to come down to who brought the bigger bats to the plate. Lance Berkman, Ian Kinsler, and Michael Young all made early impacts at the plate. Through six innings, the game was tied 4-4 and both teams had dipped into their bullpens to carry them the rest of the way.
It didn’t help. The runs kept coming, but Texas was the biggest beneficiary.
Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back-to-back home runs followed up by an RBI single from Ian Kinsler later in the inning. Texas was up 7-4 through seven innings. They could taste it. Two more innings and the championship was theirs.
Derek Holland came in for relief in the 8th and Allen Craig, the hero of Game 1 and near-hero of Game 2, cranked a solo shot to left, but that was all the damage that St. Louis did in the 8th. Texas was still up by two runs in the 9th inning and the Cards were down to their last out when David Freese came to the plate. Berkman and Pujols were already on base. Craig had just struck out. If there were three guys the Rangers didn’t want to see at the plate in this moment, that was them. They weren’t afraid of Freese. But the Iceman Cometh when he was down to his last strike. Freese lifted a fly ball to right field and that’s when the madness started at New Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Cruz never had a shot. He blindly jumped hoping that by some miracle the ball would land in his glove, but the only prayers that were answered on this night were the ones made by Cardinals fans as Freese had a game-tying two run triple to extend the game.
I have family members that are Cardinals season ticket holders. In talking to my Uncle Jim, who lives in Ballwin just outside of St. Louis, he said that he never had a doubt in his mind that they would come back from being down 7-4. But he, and many other fans, thought the game was over when Josh Hamilton launched a two-run shot to give Texas a 9-7 lead in the 10th inning.
Hamilton was playing hurt and everybody knew it. The previous year, the Rangers rode him and his ALCS MVP to the World Series, but this year he’d become a defensive centerfielder making more plays with his glove than his bat. But one last time, he reared back and dealt what should have been the winning blow for Texas in Game 6 of the World Series. Stunned silence engulfed the crowd. Nobody thought St. Louis had another comeback in them. But they were wrong.
No big homers here, the Cardinals came back in the 10th to tie the game on great hitting and manufactured runs. And they did it with their best hitters this time. Down just one run with a runner at 2nd, Texas intentionally walked Albert Pujols to get to Lance Berkman, who was the hottest hitter St. Louis had in the World Series at the time. Berkman was 2-4 with two RBI’s in the game already. He was 7-18 in the previous five games coming in. I completely expected them to load the bases for Allen Craig, but they pitched to Berkman. They got him down to his last strike… for the second time, once strike away from the championship… but they paid.
Tie game once again. At that point, St. Louis went from Comeback Kings to Team of Destiny. Texas was out of gas and it became apparent that the Cardinals were going to win this game because a two-run lead was just not good enough for Texas on this historic night. Nelson Cruz popped out and Mike Napoli hit a single to right while Esteban German (one of the worst calls Ron Washington made in the World Series) ended their half of the 11th. In the bottom of the inning, St. Louis needed just one batter to put this one away. And it was Freese that would play the hero once again.
Texas never recovered. They took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of Game 7, but gave away the lead in the bottom of the inning and never led again. St. Louis just came up with the big hits when it mattered most, when their backs were against the wall. And what’s painful for Texas is that they were clearly the better team coming in, but just couldn’t close it out. St. Louis just willed themselves to win every important game.
We should thank the Texas Rangers… and the St. Louis Cardinals. A World Series nobody wanted to see had everybody watching every game because of how close nearly every game was. With both managers making moves and players on each side coming up big constantly, the drama provided by the 2011 World Series was among the best in history. And it was played between a team from a football state and a team that snuck into the playoffs on the last day.
There were a lot of great memories provided for Texas fans. Nelson Cruz’s home run derby of a postseason was a wonder to watch. Derek Holland’s mastery at the plate on the big stage was unlikely and amazing. Mike Napoli grew into a leader and clutch player in the 2011 playoffs. Michael Young, the guy that Texas didn’t even want to bring back, constantly showed why it was a mistake that they even thought about sending him elsewhere. It was an incredible year to be a Texas Rangers fan.
But ultimately, you’ll have to live with the pain of disappointment like the storied franchises throughout baseball that have existed for a century or longer. You’re one of them now. You’ve got a team that people want to emulate and that people look up to. You lost the World Series, but if there’s something good that you can take from 2011, it should be that.
didn't read.
Bull . It very clearly was LSU 9, Alabama 6, OT.
Signed,
ESPN Hype Machine
that lsu vs alabama was the worse football game I ever saw
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