A day or so removed from the final out, the excitement generated by this year’s World Series is still fully evident among baseball fans.

What more could you ask for from a Fall Classic than a seven-game series packed full of drama and containing one game – Game Six – that will go down as one of the all-time greats. 

The St. Louis Cardinals were crowned as champions, but we were all winners really, even if it won’t feel like that for anyone connected to the Texas Rangers.

It must be devastating for the Rangers to lose a second straight World Series, especially as they were so close to winning Game Six and completing their journey the way they had imagined all season long.

Their defeat made me think of the Cincinnati Reds team of the early 1970s, so brilliantly depicted in Joe Posnanski’s book The Machine.  The Reds didn’t lose back-to-back World Series, but they did fall short in the Fall Classic twice in three years (1970 and 1972) and when they got back there in 1975 their mindset was that they simply had to win.

The Texas Rangers will go into 2012 with that same mindset, whilst acknowledging how difficult it will be even to get back to the World Series.  They had a very strong team in 2011 and, subject to any major injuries, will have so again next season.  The trouble is, even the best planning can come undone.   Continue reading →

Game Seven of the 2011 World Series will get underway at 1.05 a.m. on Saturday.

At several times during Game Six, it seemed very unlikely that we would have one more game to look forward to in the 2011 season.

However, the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals turned a very good series into a great one with an absolute classic of a game that will go down as one of the greatest in World Series history.

The Cardinals’ incredible victory tied the series at 3-3 to set up a single game decider.

ESPN America and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be providing live coverage in the UK. The one-day postponement of Game Six has meant that we can follow the action early on Saturday rather than Friday, which was the original scheduled date for Game Seven.

It almost seems pointless to try to explain Game Six because any writer would struggle to do it justice. The Cardinals twice were a strike away from losing, only to come back and win. On the other side, the Rangers twice were one strike away from winning their first ever World Series, only to see their dreams put on hold. Add on a host of errors and a walk-off home run and you couldn’t have asked for a more dramatic game.

Looking back over the highlights, the one thing that stands out to me is the moment you see Nelson Cruz start to go back on the fly ball in the ninth inning. Despite knowing the outcome, my reaction is still to think that he will make the catch and complete the Rangers’ victory. It wasn’t an easy play – and I suspect no play could really be called easy in that spot – but it was one Cruz would often make. That might just come back to haunt Texas.

The extreme contrast of emotions coming out of yesterday, coupled with Game Seven being played in St. Louis, would appear to give the Cardinals all the momentum. However, this series has showed that momentum doesn’t always have much of an effect, and perhaps doesn’t always exist in the first place.

The Rangers’ victory in Game Two seemed to hand the momentum their way, coming from behind in the ninth inning to level the series before the teams headed to Arlington for the next three games. Instead, the Cardinals came out and absolutely hammered the Rangers in Game Three. That would seem to have swung the momentum back to the Cardinals, but then the Rangers came back to win the next two games.

So there’s really no way to predict what impact Game Six will have on Game Seven. All I can safely predict is that it will be another great game and whichever team comes out on top, they will have done so by beating a formidable opponent.

The Texas Rangers stand one win away from capturing the 2011 World Series.

Their 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Five gives them a 3-2 series advantage as the Fall Classic takes a day off before resuming in St. Louis in the early hours of Thursday UK time.

Game Five marked the final contest at Rangers Ballpark in 2011, but it felt as if the game was being played in Bizarro Land rather than Arlington.

It was a confounding blend of incidents and strange tactical decisions, enough to leave anyone with their head spinning.  The effect was probably even more pronounced from this side of the pond. 

Watching the game in the early hours after limited sleep from the previous two nights made me question whether I could trust my eyes or if I had dozed off and started dreaming. The bemused comments on Twitter at the time were enough to make me realise that it was all really happening.

The most bizarre moment had to be Cardinals reliever Lance Lynn’s contribution with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Manager Tony La Russa called him into the game, ordered him to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler and then called for Jason Motte to relieve Lynn. 

La Russa is well-known for mixing and matching his relievers, bringing pitchers into the game for quite specific roles. I could imagine the British press re-using their nickname for ex-Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri and referring to him as ‘Tony the Tinkerman’, if they were the least bit interested in covering baseball.  La Russa will use a LOOGY from time to time – a lefty one out guy – which is quite a specialized role, but using a pitcher simply to issue an intentional walk is taking the approach to the extreme.

It turns out that his use of the bullpen in Game Five was hampered by miscommunication between himself – or pitching coach Dave Duncan – and the bullpen which meant that Jason Motte wasn’t ready to pitch when La Russa wanted to turn to him.  So he wasn’t intentionally creating a new pitching role, which is a shame in some ways as I had come up with a name for it (IBBM – pronounced ibbum – for intentional base on balls man).  Continue reading →

The Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington has his own unique phrase, immortalized on many a t-shirt, that sums up the wonderfully maddening nature of the sport.

‘That’s the way baseball go’

Grammar sticklers may take issue with it, but it seems perfect to me. Five short words that encapsulate the idiosyncrasies of the game. 

You could call it the baseball equivalent of football’s ‘it’s a funny old game’.

It’s a phrase that often seems appropriate in both victory and defeat, indeed the fine line between the two is partly what the phrase is about. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t.

One day you get an absolute shellacking, the very next day your starting pitcher shuts down the same batting lineup over 8.1 innings.

Yes, that’s the way baseball go.

The Texas Rangers tied the 2011 World Series at 2-2 with a 4-0 victory in Game Four in the early hours of Monday morning UK time. 

Game Three lasted just over four hours and, great as it was to witness Albert Pujols’ three homer night, it was a long four hours for anyone not wearing Cardinal red.  Still suffering the effects of a slim night’s sleep, I was hoping for a return to the crisply-played action of the first two games of the series.

Derek Holland granted me that wish in emphatic style.  He pitched a gem, silencing the same bats that had silenced Rangers Ballpark by making so much noise in Game Three.  Lance Berkman managed two hits off him, but Holland no-hit the rest of the lineup until he reluctantly left the mound with one out in the ninth inning.

It was the second time that we saw Washington and his pitcher engaged in a long discussion.  Continue reading →

The 2011 World Series moved to a new location for Game Three and it offered up a completely different contest.

While the first two games in St. Louis were sharply played, tight encounters with runs at a premium, Game Three in Arlington was a lengthy, run-filled affair with a few mistakes thrown in for good measure.

The Cardinals took a 2-1 series lead with a 16-7 victory. That came after only eight runs were scored combined by both teams in the first two games of the series.

In some respects it was to be expected. 

These are two teams with very good offences and Rangers Ballpark has a well-deserved reputation as being hitter-friendly.  These potent bats were unlikely to be silenced for much longer.

No bat is more potent than one held in the hands of Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols. He was the chief architect of the offensive onslaught, becoming only the third player to hit three homers in a World Series game.  The other two are Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson: two great names from baseball history.  You can’t expect a three-homer night out of any player, but it would also be wrong to state that the feat was unbelievable or that it was really a surprise to witness Pujols adding his name to that exclusive list.  That’s just the type of thing Albert does.

The three homers were awe-inspiring, bashing the Rangers and their fans into submission.  The ever-quotable Ron Washington put it best when he said after the game: “between him and [the Tigers’ Miguel] Cabrera, you need to outlaw them … they’re just that good”.  Continue reading →

When you live in Europe, you know that you will have to sacrifice some sleep if you want to follow the World Series live. 

That’s not always easy – or possible, in some cases – but it’s no hardship at all when it allows you to watch two games like we’ve seen so far in this Fall Classic.

Game One was a tense opener and Game Two was even closer.  The Texas Rangers landed a big – potentially pivotal – blow with a stunning comeback to win 2-1.

At the end of the seventh inning, with the Cardinals having just gained a 1-0, I commented on Twitter that the next two innings could be incredibly significant in the context of the series. 

If the Cardinals could hold on to their lead, they would be in a very strong position needing only two wins from the remaining five games to win their eleventh championship.  If the Rangers could make a comeback, that would change everything.  Not only is there a big difference between 1-1 and 0-2 in a best-of-seven series, but levelling the contest with a late rally would shift all the momentum back the Rangers’ way as the series headed to Texas for the next three games.

The Rangers rose to the challenge and in doing so have given themselves a great chance to avenge their World Series defeat of one year ago.

It didn’t look likely when Allen Craig gave the Cardinals the lead with a pinch-hit off Alexi Ogando for the second straight night.  It was ‘de ja vu all over again’, as Yogi Berra would say, and the St. Louis crowd celebrated as if they thought they had seen the decisive moment of the game.  The storylines were already being written of Tony La Russa’s move once again coming out on top over Ron Washington’s pitching change.  However, La Russa’s bullpen button pushing didn’t turn out to be quite as successful second time around.  Continue reading →