La Russa Busts, Rangers Ride NL-Style Ninth to Game 2 Glory.
In the blustery confines of Busch Stadium, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's bullpen roulette turned into the Russian variant as his decorated relief corps blew a stellar performance from starter Jaime Garcia in the ninth inning, yielding two runs to the heart of the Rangers lineup in a 2-1 loss.
But the runs came in the most National League of style: the sacrifice fly. Texas second basemen Ian Kinsler led off the final frame with a single off the ever reliable Jason Motte. Kinsler then stole second, sliding in just ahead of a tremendous throw by Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. Rangers short stop Elvis Andrus followed up with a sharp single to center, moving Kinsler to third and advancing to second when center fielder John Jay's throw skipped past Albert Pujols' glove.
La Russa, sticking to his formula of mixing and matching the bullpen, pulled his closer, Motte, in favor of lefty Arthur Rhodes to dispatch an ailing Josh Hamilton. Hamilton laced a fly ball to right field, dying in the swirling St. Louis wind, but deep enough to score Kinsler and advance Andrus. La Russa again dipped into his pen, this time---curiously---calling upon rookie Lance Lynn to face veteran first basemen Michael Young. Young promptly produced his own sacrifice fly, more than deep enough to allow the speedy Andrus to saunter home with the game winning run. Rangers closer Neftali Feliz cruised through the home half of the inning to send the two teams to Arlington tied at a game apiece.
Texas starter Colby Lewis pitched an effective game, going 6 2/3rd innings while allowing one run on four hits. The Cardinals' sole run came on Allen Craig's seventh inning single off reliever Alexi Ogando, a run charged to Lewis.
Lewis was matched pitch for pitch (and then some) by Cards starter Garcia, who breezed through seven innings of work, allowing only three hits and striking out seven Rangers while throwing a minimal 87 pitches. Still, La Russa yanked Garcia in favor of his bullpen, which had been untouchable in the postseason up until game 2. With Motte entering in the ninth, a victory seemed inevitable. But the hard-throwing righty couldn't shut the door on the American League champs this time. Said Motte, "I didn't do my job."
The series now becomes a best of five, with the Rangers taking over home field advantage, the next three games to be contested in Arlington. Game three starters are slated to be Kyle Lohse (0-2, 7.45 ERA in the playoffs) for the Cardinals and Matt Harrison (1-0, 4.22) for the Rangers. With the DH now in play, expect La Russa to have an even quicker trigger on his starters in an attempt to get the World Series back to Missouri.
Quotes courtesy of the Associated Press. Stats courtesy of baseball-reference.com.
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