A Spectacular Game 6

With David Freese’s walk off home run in the 11th inning last night, Game 6 cemented itself as one of the greatest postseason games in MLB history. It also set the stage for a deciding Game 7 to close out an already great World Series. Sadly, not that many people watched it, and I can understand why. The games are too long and there are far too many stoppages; however, those who did tune it last night were graced with a classic. Some modern era games that could rival last night’s: Carter walks off in ’93, Gibson limping around the bases in ’88, *GASP* Buckner in ’86, Puckett in ’91. This one was right up there with all of those.

Frightening

To recap (for those of you that didn’t watch it), the Cardinals were down to their final strike twice, with Freese in the 9th and Lance Berkman in the 10th. Though there was plenty of drama before the 9th, let’s start there (because that’s about when baseball gets exciting, and even then it’s rare). With runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, Freese came to plate against Rangers’ closer Neftali Feliz down 2 runs. Freese took a fastball from Feliz and drove it to the warning track in deep right. Rangers’ RF Nelson Cruz seemed to tip-toe back to the track and misplayed the ball into a triple that scored both runs and tied the game. The bigger issue with this play was Cruz’s positioning. In this situation you can’t allow a double(or triple) that scores the tying run. Cruz, while playing deep, was not playing deep enough. On initial viewing it appeared as though he was playing back in a “no doubles” defense, but upon further review it was clear that Ron Washington’s bald halo made an egregious error by not positioning his outfielders correctly. That play alone may cost the Rangers their first World Series title, and there will not be enough backlash in the media regarding Washington’s mistake.

Separated at birth?

In the top of the 10th, Hamilton put the Rangers up by 2 with a home run to right-center off of Cards’ closer Jason Motte (nice try with the Brian Wilson beard). Get the ginger ale ready! Again up 2, the Rangers headed into the bottom of the 10th. Who do you think the Rangers turned to? – None other than 56 year old Darren Oliver. Descalso and Jay both singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Kyle Lohse sacrificed the runners over. The bunt was almost disastrous as Lohse nearly lined out to the hard charging Beltre. Ryan Theriot grounded out to third, scoring Descalso and cutting the lead to 1. Pujols was intentionally walked, bringing up Berkman with 1st and 2nd and 2 outs. During Phil Mickelson… er, Lance Berkmans’ at bat, the outfield was positioned extremely deep with all three outfielders basically on the warning track (far deeper than in Freese’s AB). Berkman hit a looping liner to center, scoring Jay and tying the game.

Allen Craig grounded to third and ended the inning. Jake Westbrook came on for the Cardinals and got through the top of the 11th only allowing a single.

Freese led off the 11th with a deep home run to center. It was the fourth walk off home run in a Game 6 in World Series history. How fitting was it that the game ended this way? The trivia question of the night on Fox was: “How many Game 6s have ended in a walk off home run?” There were 3, until last night. Bostonians all remember Fisk’s iconic home run in the ’75 series (they of course still lost in Game 7). Kirby Puckett’s dazzling catch and subsequent walk off in ’91, and Joe Carter jumping around the bases as the Blue Jays won the World Series in ’93.

Now you can add David Freese and the 2011 Cardinals to that list.