October 28, 2011: David Freese named World Series MVP as Cardinals win 11th championship

Perhaps no team in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history was as resilient as the 2011 squad. The Cardinals, 9½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League Wild Card race on August 28, went 20-8 down the stretch to clinch the wild card on the final day of the regular season. After upsetting the 102-win Philadelphia Phillies and NL Central Division champion Milwaukee Brewers to win the franchise’s 18th NL pennant, the 90-win Cardinals found themselves down to their final strike twice against the 96-win Texas Rangers in Game Six of the World Series.

But Cardinals third baseman David Freese, raised in Wildwood, Missouri,1 delivered a game-tying triple in the ninth inning and a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to send the World Series to an unlikely Game Seven.

As a Friday night crowd of 47,399 filled Busch Stadium for the deciding game, St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter, starting on three days’ rest,2 allowed a leadoff single to Ian Kinsler. Kinsler attempted to steal on the first pitch to Elvis Andrus but slipped on the infield dirt. Andrus missed a bunt attempt and catcher Yadier Molina’s pickoff throw to first baseman Albert Pujols trapped Kinsler for the first out.

But Andrus eventually walked on five pitches, and Josh Hamilton drilled a 1-and-1 pitch down the right-field line with Andrus off on the pitch to bring home the first run of the game. Texas added another run on Michael Young’s double to right field. With Young at second, Carpenter struck out Adrian Beltré swinging and got Nelson Cruz to ground out to Freese. 

Southpaw Matt Harrison, a 14-game winner and Game Three starter, began the bottom of the first by getting Ryan Theriot to ground to second and Allen Craig3 to fly to right-center field. Harrison then lost his command by walking Pujols on four pitches and Lance Berkman on five pitches, bringing up Freese.

On Harrison’s seventh pitch, with the count 3-and-2, Freese connected for a double to left-center field, driving in Pujols and Berkman to tie the score. The Cardinals almost took the lead on a deep fly ball by Molina to center, but Hamilton made a leaping catch on the warning track.

The Rangers threatened to score when Mike Napoli led off the second inning with a single, his seventh hit of the series. Napoli was forced at second on David Murphy’s groundout to Carpenter. Harrison bunted Murphy to second and Kinsler walked. With two on and two out and Andrus batting, Molina attempted to pick off Kinsler for a second time but Pujols, not holding Kinsler at first, missed the throw and Murphy advanced to third. Carpenter picked up his teammate by getting Andrus to hit a comebacker on a pitch off the plate for the third out.

The Cardinals broke the 2-2 tie in the third inning. With one out, Craig worked the count full on Harrison, then connected on a 91-mph outside fastball and drove the ball into the Cardinals’ bullpen in right field for a 3-2 lead. It was Craig’s third homer of the Series.

St. Louis added to its lead in the fifth after right-hander Scott Feldman relieved Harrison. With one out, Craig walked and advanced to second after Pujols was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up after Berkman grounded out to Young at first, flipping the ball to Feldman covering the base. Freese stepped to the plate, but after his Game Six heroics and his RBI double in the first, Rangers manager Ron Washington and pitching coach Mike Maddux decided to intentionally walk Freese to load the bases for Molina.

Molina took three balls before Feldman pumped two straight strikes. On 3-and-2 and all runners taking off, Feldman’s 95-mph fastball just missed, according to home plate umpire Jerry Layne. The Cardinals took a 4-2 lead on the run-scoring walk as Napoli, behind the plate, slumped in disappointment after the call.4

Washington went to his bullpen to bring in southpaw C.J. Wilson, the Rangers’ Game One and Game Five starter, to face switch-hitter Rafael Furcal. Wilson, a former closer, hit Furcal with his first pitch, a 92-mph fastball that ran too far inside, to make it 5-2.

Both teams were scoreless in the sixth, but the Rangers attempted a rally in the seventh. Murphy hit a ground-rule double to right off a hanging 1-and-1 curveball from Carpenter. Washington had lefty hitter Endy Chávez ready to pinch-hit for Wilson, but Cardinals manager Tony La Russa summoned veteran southpaw Arthur Rhodes. Washington countered by pinch-hitting right-handed batter Yorvit Torrealba for Chávez. The strategy failed, as Torrealba flied out to center.5

Again, La Russa called upon another reliever in right-hander Octavio Dotel to face two right-handed batters in Kinsler and Andrus. Dotel struck out Kinsler on four pitches, the last a 94-mph fastball down the heart of the plate, while Andrus flied out to center on a 3-and-1 fastball. Frustration mounted for the Rangers, as Fox’s replay showed Andrus slamming his bat trotting to first base.  

Mike Adams took over on the mound for Texas and struck out Pujols on an inside sinker. The Cardinals responded, with Berkman reaching on a single to Andrus at short and Freese drawing a five-pitch walk. With two on and one out, Molina ripped a 1-and-0 fastball into center field to drive in Berkman for his second RBI of the game and ninth of the Series. It was 6-2, St. Louis.

After both teams went down in order in the eighth, flame-throwing closer Jason Motte came on in the ninth.6 Motte had saved Game One but lost Game Two. Cruz opened the Rangers’ half-inning with a flyout to Jon Jay, now in center field. Napoli, a thorn in the Cardinals’ side this series, grounded out to Daniel Descalso, who also came into the game for Freese at third. Had the Rangers won the World Series, Napoli was a prime candidate for World Series MVP. The Rangers’ catcher batted .350 against St. Louis with two home runs, 10 RBIs, and two runs scored in seven games. 

As Murphy stepped to the plate, Cardinals fans roared with excitement, sensing that their team was about to win its 11th World Series championship.

On an 0-and-1 fastball, Murphy drove a ball to left field directly at Craig for the final out, as Fox’s Joe Buck—who began his major-league broadcast career calling Cardinals games alongside his father, Jack Buck—had the call:

“In the air to left well hit, back is Craig. What a team! What a ride! The Cardinals are World Champs in 2011!”7

When presented with the Commissioner’s Trophy, Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. remarked, “This was one of the great runs in baseball history. An incredible come-from-behind team, 10½ games out in August, and we just never gave up, and we had three incredible great series in the postseason and we were fortunate to come out on top in all of them.”8

Pujols, who earned his second ring as a Cardinal, echoed DeWitt’s comments: “We had a 5 percent chance (to reach the playoffs) with 35 games left in the season. We knew we had to play great. The first five months of the season were pretty bad. But it doesn’t matter. We’re world champions.”9 

Freese hit .397 with a .794 slugging percentage in the 2011 postseason, collected an MLB-record 21 RBIs, and became the first position player to win NLCS MVP and World Series MVP since another Cardinal, Darrell Porter, accomplished the feat in 1982. After batting .348 with seven RBIs against the Rangers10, Freese joined Porter, Bob Gibson, and David Eckstein as Cardinals’ World Series MVP winners.11

“I’m trying to soak this all in. I’ve tried to soak in this whole postseason because you never know if it’s your last attempt at a title. It’s going to take me a little bit, I think, to realize what we’ve accomplished,” Freese said after winning MVP honors.12

As of 2026, this was the Cardinals’ most recent title. St. Louis returned to the World Series in 2013 but fell in six games to the Boston Red Sox.

For the Texas Rangers, it was a frustrating and painful defeat. A disappointed Young said: “Obviously, this one is going to sting for a while. The last two nights have been pretty difficult, but I loved suiting up with these guys all season, and I loved playing with them the last two nights.”13

The Rangers finally won the franchise’s first World Series 12 years later in 2023, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: David Freese, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed a DVD recording of the Fox Sports television broadcast of this game, produced by Major League Baseball.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN201110280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2011/B10280SLN2011.htm

Notes

1 Wildwood is a suburb of St. Louis, approximately 40 minutes west of Busch Stadium.

2 La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan decided to start Carpenter, who started Game Five back on October 24. When La Russa called Duncan the morning of Game Seven to discuss any alternatives, Duncan responded, “Carp’s pitching,” and hung up. Tony La Russa, One Last Strike, (New York: HarperCollins, 2012), 378.

3 Craig started in left field after Matt Holliday injured his pinky finger in Game Six.

4 Fox’s FoxTrax, its automated strike zone, had Feldman’s fastball right on the border for a strike.

5 It was the final appearance of Rhodes’ 20-season, nine-club major-league career. It was also his only World Series championship in six trips to the postseason.

6 The Cardinals had eight pitchers earn at least one save in 2011, with Fernando Salas registering a team-high 24 saves. When Salas suffered what La Russa described as “wear and tear” in the second half of the season, Motte took over the closer’s role. La Russa, One Last Strike, 290.

7 Game 7. St. Louis Cardinals: 2011 World Series Collectors Edition, Major League Baseball (director), released on October 8, 2013.

8 Game 7.

9 Joe Strauss, “Cardinals Rule,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 29, 2011: W3. Pujols signed a 10-year, $254-million free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on December 8. He returned to the Cardinals for the final season of his major-league career in 2022.

10 Derrick Goold, “Banner Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch: W10.

11 Since the World Series MVP was introduced in 1955, Gibson remains the only player in Cardinals franchise history to win the award twice in 1964 and 1967.

12 Goold.

13 Jeff Wilson, “Rangers Strike Out in Pursuit of Title,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram: 2CC.