October 27, 2011: David Freese’s game-tying triple, walk-off home run keep Cardinals alive in Game 6

The St. Louis Cardinals’ chances of making the 2011 postseason looked bleak in late August. They were 10½ games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central Division and 9½ games off the wild-card pace on August 28. But the Cardinals went 20-8 down the stretch to edge out the Atlanta Braves for the league’s wild card on the final day of the regular season.1

The 90-win Cardinals then defeated the 102-win Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series, beating Hall of Fame-bound Roy Halladay, 1-0, in the elimination game. A six-game NL Championship Series win over the Brewers put St. Louis in the World Series for the first time since 2006.

The American League champion Texas Rangers were in the World Series for the second consecutive year. Texas lost to the San Francisco Giants in five games in 2010. Playoff wins over the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers had given the Rangers another shot at the first World Series championship in franchise history.2

The teams traded wins through the first four games. Texas won Game Five, 4-2, breaking a tie with two runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Series returned to St. Louis for the final two games, with the Rangers needing just one win for the championship.3

Jaime García started Game Six for St. Louis. The 24-year-old left-hander was making his fifth start in the postseason. He had pitched seven scoreless innings in Game Two but received a no-decision when the Rangers rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth inning against the Cardinals’ bullpen.

García walked Game Six leadoff batter Ian Kinsler in the first. A pair of singles brought Kinsler home to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.

Texas sent right-hander Colby Lewis to the mound. The 31-year-old Lewis had pitched 6 2/3 innings while giving up four hits and one run in Game Two. After Skip Schumaker singled with one out in the bottom of the first, Lance Berkman put the Cardinals in front with a two-out home run to left-center.

The Rangers tied the game in the second when Kinsler’s two-out double scored Craig Gentry.

Fernando Salas replaced Garcia in the fourth. Nelson Cruz hit a liner that left fielder Matt Holliday misplayed and Cruz reached second on the error. Mike Napoli’s line-drive single to right scored Cruz and put the Rangers back on top, 3-2.

St. Louis tied the game again in the bottom of the fourth. Berkman grounded to first baseman Michael Young, who bobbled the ball. When Young finally threw to first, Lewis didn’t touch the bag, and Berkman was safe on Young’s error. Holliday walked, and David Freese’s groundout put runners at the corners. Yadier Molina’s groundout scored Berkman.

Josh Hamilton reached when third baseman Freese dropped an easy popup to start the fifth. Young doubled to score Hamilton and put the Rangers ahead again, 4-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, Berkman singled with one out. Holliday hit a groundball to Young, who turned to throw to second but dropped the ball. By the time Young recovered the ball and ran to first, both runners were safe. It was his second error of the game.

After Lewis walked Freese to load the bases, he was replaced by Alexi Ogando. The 27-year-old right-hander had started 29 games for the Rangers but had been used in relief in the postseason. He walked Molina to force in the run that tied the score, 4-4.

Ogando picked off Holliday at third, but when he walked Nick Punto to load the bases again, Texas manager Ron Washington replaced him with left-hander Derek Holland, who retired John Jay for the third out.

The Rangers had a rapid response – consecutive home runs by Adrian Beltré and Cruz off right-hander Lance Lynn started the seventh. Three batters later, with Holland on first and two outs after an unsuccessful sacrifice attempt, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa went back to his bullpen for Octavio Dotel. A wild pitch put Holland in scoring position. Kinsler’s single to center scored Holland and put the Rangers ahead 7-4.

St. Louis got one of the runs back in the eighth on Allen Craig’s solo homer. Craig had replaced Holliday, who injured his pinky finger in the sixth.4 After Holland allowed a two-out single to Molina, Washington called on right-hander Mike Adams. Adams gave up a pair of singles to load the bases before getting Rafael Furcal to ground out.

With Texas leading 7-5 and just three outs from its first championship, Washington brought in 23-year-old closer Neftalí Feliz. The right-hander had led the Rangers in saves in 2010 and 2011 and already earned two saves in the Series.

“I thought when you’re down two runs to their closer in the ninth – this guy is legitimate one-two-three and they’re shaking hands,” said La Russa. “You try to get something started.”5

With one out, Pujols doubled, his first hit since his three-homer barrage in Game Three. Berkman walked, but Craig struck out for the second out.

This brought up Freese, who had grown up in the St. Louis area and had been a Cardinals fan all his life. Feliz threw two sliders. Freese swung at the second one and missed. He said he was thinking, “This is not fun.”6 Feliz got him to swing at the third pitch, a fastball.

Down to the final strike, Freese lined another fastball to right. It sailed over Cruz and bounced off the wall. Both runners scored to tie the game for the fourth time.

“Initially I was like ‘Are you kidding me? My first at-bat off Feliz in this situation ever,’” Freese said. “Initially I thought I hit it pretty good, I thought (Cruz) was going to grab it, so just a lot of emotions on that one.”7 After Freese slid into third with a triple, “I knew where my family was sitting, so I looked up and saw my mom losing her mind,” he said.8

The last time Feliz had blown a save was on August 6. “That’s a pitch I use a lot, very often, when I’m trying to close the games,” he said. “I put it where I want it, and he made good contact.”9

Texas wasted no time in jumping back in front in the 10th. Right-hander Jason Motte, the sixth Cardinals pitcher, gave up a one-out single to Elvis Andrus. Hamilton hit Motte’s first pitch over the wall in right-center to lift the Rangers to another two-run lead. It was the 2010 AL MVP’s first homer of the postseason and again left Texas three outs from the championship.

Darren Oliver came in to pitch the bottom of the frame. He gave up a pair of singles. After pinch-hitter Kyle Lohse’s sacrifice put both runners in scoring position, Washington brought in Scott Feldman. Ryan Theriot grounded out, but a run scored, cutting the deficit to 9-8. Feldman gave Pujols an intentional walk. Berkman then singled, his third hit of the game, to bring home the tying run. Feldman got Craig to ground to third and send the game to the 11th with the score tied at 9 runs apiece.

Jake Westbrook pitched a scoreless 11th for the Cardinals. In the bottom of the inning, 28-year-old right-hander Mark Lowe was sent to the mound for the Rangers. After working the count full, Freese sent Lowe’s sixth pitch over the center-field wall for a walk-off Cardinals win, tying the Series at three games each.

 “(It was) just an incredible feeling, seeing all my teammates at the dish waiting for me,” said Freese, whose shirt was torn off during the celebration.

“Growing up or whatever, and you see stuff like that happen, those become memories.”10

“If that wasn’t the best postseason game of all time, I don’t know what could top it,” said Berkman. “It was an epic game in a lot of ways,” said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. “It captures our season in one night. Nobody ever quit.”11

Texas tried to take the defeat in stride. Said manager Washington, “It’s not that easy to win a world championship. We had the right people in the right spots, and they beat us. We’ll bounce back tomorrow.”12

A night later, the Rangers scored two runs in the first off Chris Carpenter, who was pitching on three days’ rest. But Carpenter shut down Texas for the next five innings before Cardinals relievers finished the game. St. Louis rallied for a 6-2 win, good for its second championship in six years and 11th World Series title in franchise history.

It was the first time since 1986, when the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Mets, that a team came one out away from the championship but lost the World Series.13 Two other teams, the 1911 Philadelphia Athletics and the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays, came one out from winning and lost the game. But both teams recovered to win the championship.14

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for the box score and other material. The author thanks John Fredland for his help in improving the story.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN201110270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2011/B10270SLN2011.htm

Notes

1 Atlanta finished 89-73, one game behind the Cardinals. The Giants finished 86-76, four games behind St.Louis.

2 Texas beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, in the AL Division Series. The Rangers faced the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS and won the American League crown in six games.

3 The Cardinals had the home-field advantage in the 2011 World Series because the National League won the All-Star Game that season. The rule, which was used from 2003 to 2016, stated that the league that won the All-Star Game had home-field advantage in the World Series. The rule changed in 2017 to give the team with the higher regular-season win percentage the home-field advantage, regardless of whether that team won its division title or a wild-card berth..

4 Holliday injured his finger when he dived back to third as he tried to avoid being picked off the base.

5 Joe Strauss, “Comeback Special,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 28, 2011: W3.

6 Molly Knight, “Down to His Last Strike, David Freese Became a World Series Hero for St. Louis,” ESPN.com, May 19, 2020, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29179826/down-last-strike-david-freese-became-unlikely-world-series-hero-st-louis-cardinals.

7 Associated Press, “Cardinals Stun Texas, Force World Series to Game 7,” Dallas Morning News, October 27, 2011, https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/rangers/2011/10/28/cardinals-stun-texas-force-world-series-to-game-7/.

8 Knight, “Down to His Last Strike, David Freese Became a World Series Hero for St. Louis.”

9 Tyler Kepner, “For Texas, the Moment Slipped Away, Twice,” New York Times, October 29, 2011., https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/sports/baseball/for-texas-the-moment-slipped-away-twice.html.

10 Associated Press, “Cardinals Stun Texas, Force World Series to Game 7.”

11 Joe Strauss, “Comeback Special.”

12 Jeff Wilson, “Rangers Can’t Close It Out,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 28, 2011: 5D.

13 The New York Mets won Game Six on Bill Buckner’s Error in the bottom of the 10th inning on October 25, 1986. New York won Game Seven, 8-5, on October 27, 1986, to win their second World Series championship.

14 The New York Giants won Game Five, 4-3, over the Philadelphia Athletics on Fred Merkle’s fly ball with two outs in the 10th inning on October 24, 1911. Philadelphia came back to win Game Six, 13-2, on October 26, 1911. The Toronto Blue Jays won Game Six, 4-3, over the Braves on October 24, 1992. They went ahead by two runs in the top of  the 10th. Atlanta scored one run in the bottom of the inning. With two outs and a runner on third, Otis Nixon bunted back to the pitcher for the final out and Toronto’s first championship.