World Series: St. Louis 1 - 2 Texas (Series tied 1-1)

Before the Series began, a number of experts -- most of whom presumably saw St. Louis and/or Texas play baseball at some point prior to the playoffs -- insisted that this would be a high-scoring series because of the booming bats on both sides. Apparently, those experts were going off of the fact that St. Louis and Texas ran up a lot of runs in the final game of their respective League Championship Series. And in so doing, they failed to consider that: (1) Milwaukee and Detroit (the teams that lost in the League Championship Series) only had about three or four good pitchers each, and (2) by Game Six of the LCS, those pitchers were worn out. Here in the World Series, both teams have been able to put out good pitchers, and the results have been back-to-back pitchers duels, as the batters on each side have not mastered the basic fact that good pitchers rarely give up home runs.

Yesterday, there was a lot of jocularity about how the Cardinals' closer, Jason Motte, does not like to be referred to as a "closer," because the term makes him nervous. Instead, Manager LaRussa says that Motte is the guy who pitches the ninth inning when St. Louis is ahead. Well, it's not so funny for Cardinals fans tonight, because Motte had a chance to give the Cardinals a big lead in this series, and he blew it.

Going into the top of the 9th, the Cardinals had a 1-0 lead -- which looked pretty safe, considering that the Rangers had only scored in one of the 17 innings in which they faced Cardinal pitching. St. Louis also had Motte to nail down the victory. But he did not. He gave up an infield single to Texas lead-off hitter Ian Kinsler. Then Kinsler stole second. Then Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus singled to center. Kinsler stopped at third, but when Albert Pujols failed to cut off the throw from center, Andrus scooted to second. Suddenly, the Rangers had men on second and third with no out.

LaRussa yanked Motte and sent out Arthur Rhodes to pitch to Josh Hamilton. But Hamilton was in the perfect position -- those fly outs he keeps making when he swings for the fences were finally valuable. His fly scored Kinsler to tie the game, with Andrus advancing to third. LaRussa then brought in Lance Lynn to pitch to Texas cleanup hitter Michael Young. But again, the Texas specialty -- a long fly out -- got the job done. Suddenly, after being completely hopeless the whole game, Texas had the lead. They slammed the door on St. Louis in the bottom of the 9th and the series was tied at one apiece.

Now we head to Dallas for the next three games, and we will see if the Rangers hit better on their home ground.