World Series Game 6: Night of the Living Dead

Twice last night the St. Louis Cardinals were down to their last strike, down 2 runs each time. Both times they seemingly came back from the great beyond and tied the game. The game went 11 innings, and the hometown Cards ended up winning 10-9 in one of the best World Series games that I have ever seen. I don't think that any other WS game between two teams that I have no rooting interest in has captured my attention quite like the one last night. Coming back from 2 runs down in the bottom of the 9th inning is nuts, and doing it again in the 10th is even crazier. Now put that on as large of a stage as is possible in the sport and, just for good measure, give the batter 2 strikes each time. When Ryan Theriot struck out in the bottom of the 9th, the Cardinals had a 4.1% chance of winning the game, according to Fangraphs. When Josh Hamilton hit what looked like the game-winning home run in the top of the 10th, the Cardinals again had only a 7.7% chance of winning the game. Somehow this team defied the odds and won the game. Ridiculous, right? However, as good as the last few innings were, the first 7 were pretty damn sloppy. I can't believe these teams combined for 5 errors!! Without the remarkable comeback by the cardiac Cards, this would have been a very poor ending to a good series. Thankfully they did come back from the dead twice and I get to watch one more game of baseball this season.

Now for the best part of the day-after analysis: the blame game! It seems to me like most pundits are piling onto the Nelson Cruz for goat bandwagon, but I definitely disagree. Obviously, the Rangers were ridiculously close to winning their first World Series title in franchise history, so the Cardinals (cough, David Freese, cough) deserve a lot of credit for finding a way to win. I'm not letting the Rangers skate away free though. I think the one man who hurt the Rangers most last night was their manager, Ron Washington. In fact, I think if the Rangers lose tonight and fail once again to win the elusive championship their fans crave, the blame for the series loss would fall squarely on Mr. Washington's shoulders. Here's my case. Throughout the series, and this whole postseason for that matter, Wash has severely mismanaged the two phases of the game in which he has the most control: pinch-hitting and bullpen. It seems to me that he always goes to Alexi Ogando out of the pen in big spots. I know Ogando is a fireballer who had some serious success this season, but you have to look at how he has performed more recently. Ogando has pitched in all but 1 game of the WS so far, and has a whopping 11.57 ERA in only 2.1 innings pitched. He has also walked 7 guys so far this series! Why is he still pitching on this team? Washington's pinch-hitting decisions are just as mystifying as his bullpen moves are. The Rangers are not a light-hitting team, especially when they have an extra batter on the bench in the NL ballpark. Unfortunately for fans of the franchise, Washington insists on using his weakest bench players in huge pinch hitting at-bats. He has already utilized Esteban German 3 times so far, a player who, coming into the WS, had last hit a meaningful pitch in August. Suffice it to say, German has not registered a hit so far, and has looked supremely overmatched in most of his plate appearances. I guess that's what happens to a hitter when he hasn't had 100 ABs in a season since 2008.

In Game 6, Washington's mismanagement of the bullpen and his bench came to a head. In the top of the 11th inning, with the game tied, 2 outs, and a runner on first base, Washington decided to pinch hit for his pitcher, Scott Feldman. Feldman was brought in to clean up the mess left to him by Darren Oliver in the bottom of the 10th, and did give up the two runs that tied the game. Up to that point, however, Feldman was regarded as one of the best bullpen options Texas had, and was pitching well in the postseason. Washington, although there were no reliable pitchers left in the bullpen, decided to pinch hit for Feldman and try to keep the slim hope of scoring that inning alive. Instead of pulling Feldman for the best hitter he had left on the bench, Yorvit Torrealba, Washington put in German. Torrealba has hit .500 so far this series, and had more ABs this year than German has had in the past 4 years combined. German grounded out weakly to end the inning, as I'm sure most people watching expected him to do. To further compound this mistake, Washington brought in Mark Lowe, a relief pitcher I had not heard of until he entered the game. Lowe had not pitched for the team at all this postseason. David Freese, a very good young hitter, came to the plate to lead off, and promptly took Lowe deep for the walk-off homer. So to sum it up, Rangers fans, if you lose this series, there is only one man to blame: Ron Washington.

All that being said, I am extremely excited to watch tonight's series-deciding Game 7. It starts at 8:05 PM tonight and airs on FOX. The starting pitching matchup is Matt Harrison (TEX) vs. Chris Carpenter (STL). Anyone who considers themselves a sports fan should be watching tonight. There hasn't been a Game 7 in the WS since the Angels beat the Giants in 2002. Even if it doesn't come close to being as good as last night's game was, it'll still be a great watch.

-Cote