Game Four of the 2013 World Series gave us another stunning ending.

After Game Three ended on an obstruction call, Game Four was concluded by Cardinals pinch-runner Kolten Wong being picked off from first base.

Apologising for the pun, Wong committed a cardinal sin, like a batsman in cricket being run out for failing to ground his bat.

Being picked off in any situation is a mistake; having it happen with two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series game makes it infinitely worse and considering the game situation it was a shocking error.

The Cardinals trailed 4-2, so there was not a significant amount to be gained in Wong inching out a good lead at first base to either steal a base or get around to third base on a single.  That was particularly the case considering Carlos Beltran was at the plate, arguably St. Louis’s best hitter. The look of disbelief on Beltran’s face as he slowly walked back to the dugout said it all.

Wong’s mistake created the opportunity, but we shouldn’t overlook the lightning-quick work of pitcher Koji Uehara and first baseman Mike Napoli in taking advantage. Based on Boston’s luck throwing the ball around so far this series, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Uehara’s throw skip off down the right-field line, allowing Wong to sprint around to third base with the St. Louis crowd suddenly sensing a Boston meltdown.

There was no hesitation on Uehara’s part, no thought that errant throws had cost his team recently and it might be safer not to risk anything. He had the confidence that he would make a good throw and got his reward.

The pick-off allowed Jonny Gomes to be the hairy hero for the Red Sox. The bearded-wonder was a late addition to the Boston lineup following an injury to Shane Victorino and he took his chance by clouting a three-run homer in the sixth inning.

It was a poor pitch by reliever Seth Maness, the sort that probably had him shouting ‘oh no’ (or words to that effect) to himself as soon as it left his hand, but a mistake pitch only counts for the offence if the man at the plate takes full advantage.

Gomes certainly did that and in doing so gave a pumped-up Red Sox team a decisive advantage in the game and potentially a decisive advantage in the series.

There’s a big difference between the series being tied 2-2 and the Cardinals holding a 3-1 lead with a potential series-clinching Game Five at Busch Stadium. You would perhaps make the Red Sox marginal favourites with two of the potential three remaining games taking place in Boston; however there is little to choose between the two teams and it’s not mere fence-sitting to conclude that the series could still go either way.

The only thing we should expect is the unexpected. ESPN’s report of Game Four states that prior to these last two games, none of the previous 1,404 postseason games in MLB history had ended on either an obstruction call or a pick-off.

I can’t wait to see what new ending the Cardinals and Red Sox will conjure up for Game Five.

You know you have had a strange ending to a game when one of the leading videos on MLB.com is of a press conference by the umpiring crew.

Game Three of the 2013 World Series will certainly live long in the memory as the game that ended on an obstruction call, putting St. Louis into a 2-1 series lead over Boston.

Obstruction isn’t an especially common occurrence in MLB games. I went years keeping score of MLB games without really knowing much about the rules around it as the play hardly ever cropped up.

Often the best way to learn is through finding out you don’t know something and then filling that gap in your knowledge. I suspect I’m far from the only baseball fan who knows a lot more about obstruction this morning than I did prior to Game Three.

The umpires did a good job after the game of explaining the laws and the thought-processes they followed in applying them on this particular play. The main thing to keep in mind is that the law is there to be fair to the baserunner and that they have a right to attempt to progress to the next base – in this case home plate – without being impeded.

It was tough on Will Middlebrooks as, even with his feet raised, I don’t think anyone believed he was trying to impede Allen Craig. However, intent doesn’t come into it and it’s not unique in sporting rules that a law fair to one side means that the opposing player can be seen as hard done by.

In football, if a goalkeeper as last man makes a genuine attempt to get the ball, trips the striker and denies a clear goal-scoring opportunity, the opposing team will get a penalty and the goalie will be sent off. The ‘double jeopardy’ aspect of this seems harsh, but it’s there for a reason and it’s up to the goalkeeper as a professional footballer to know the laws and to play within them. In other words, when he stretches to get the ball, he does so knowing if he gets it wrong he will be sent off.

In the case of Middlebrooks, the argument that he had nowhere to go and ‘couldn’t evaporate into thin air’ (as I read one Red Sox fan putting it) is completely irrelevant. Middlebrooks should know the laws of the game. When he lunged to try and catch the ball he did so knowing that if it went past him and he ended up in Craig’s way, he would be left obstructing the baserunner.

As in the goalie example, Middlebrooks had a split-second to decide how to react to the throw coming down the line and if he had more time or could re-do it then he probably would have fielded it differently, but in sport you only get one crack at it. The way Middlebrooks played it meant he obstructed Craig so he has to accept the penalty.

It should also be noted that the decision at third base didn’t itself result in the winning run. Home plate umpire Dana DeMuth still had to make a judgement call as to whether Craig would have scored had he not been obstructed (again, as in football where the referee makes a judgement on if a clear goal-scoring opportunity has been denied).  It was a close play at the plate and so DeMuth’s decision to award the run was sound.

The cries of Jake Peavy and David Ortiz that this wasn’t the way to end a World Series game should be brushed aside as heat-of-the-moment comments driven by understandable frustration at losing in such a bizarre way. The umpires cannot ignore the laws of the game just because the result will be the game-winning run. And, indeed, the fact that it ended the game made it all the more important that the umpires called it. Considering the badly hobbled Craig nearly beat the throw home anyway, it would have been a travesty for the umpires to have ignored the obstruction that otherwise would have denied the Cardinals the victory.

Yes it was unusual and yes it was a very harsh way for the Red Sox to lose the game, especially considering the wonderful piece of fielding by Dustin Pedroia that started it all off, but Boston’s bad luck ultimately was that the umpiring crew made the correct call.

In amongst all the discussion, that should not be overlooked or downplayed in anyway. On an unusual play in the most intense situation imaginable with just one real-time-speed chance to look at it, the umpires got it spot on.

Doesn’t it sum up the life of an umpire that they can make an exceptional call on a very difficult play and they still end up under the spotlight.

The line up for the 2013 World Series is set with the Boston Red Sox hosting the St. Louis Cardinals in Game One at Fenway Park in the early hours of Thursday morning, U.K. time.

In recent years we’ve reveled in the unpredictability of the playoffs, the feeling that if you can make it into the postseason then the short-series format gives everyone an equal chance of success.

That still holds true and part of the enjoyment of the postseason so far has been the knowledge that had a moment here or there gone another way, we could be looking at a completely different Fall Classic.

However, after all the twists and turns, it does seem fitting that we have ended up with the two teams that won the most regular season games in their respective leagues.

You have to admire the way that the Cardinals keep on developing their own players; giving the team a chance to compete every year with a mid-ranking payroll (their Opening Day payroll of $103m was the 14^th highest of the 30 teams).

There’s no real secret to their success. As often is the case, it is based on something that seems simple but is actually not so. From amateur draft picks, trades, promoting prospects at the right time, free agent signings and knowing when to part with players, the Cardinals consistently make good decisions.

They don’t get it right every time, nobody does, but they appear to have a strong, stable structure at the heart of the organization that gets everyone on the same page working together. If you have good processes in place that everyone buys in to, you’ll get more decisions right than wrong.

The offseason after the Cardinals’ World Series triumph two years ago was a perfect illustration of this.

Although plenty of neutrals saw the logic in allowing Albert Pujols, the team’s marquee player, to leave as a free agent, it was still a brave decision. No doubt everyone in the organization wanted to keep Pujols if they could, but they set a financial limit on what they were prepared to offer with future budgets in mind and the knowledge that one player, however good he may be, does not make a team successful on his own.

The Los Angeles Angels made an offer to Pujols that the Cardinals were not prepared to match and so, with everyone in the organization on board, they walked away from the negotiations and committed to turning the situation into an opportunity.

Of the many positive outcomes of letting Pujols leave, Michael Wacha is the most striking due to his outstanding performances this postseason.  Wacha was acquired by the Cardinals with the compensation draft pick they received from the Angels due to Pujols’ departure. Having the 19^th selection in the 2012 amateur draft was a bonus for St. Louis but, as with every opportunity, they still had to make the most of it by making a good decision. There’s no doubt that they did just that with Wacha.

That wasn’t where the good decision-making ended either. They evaluated Wacha’s process carefully and knew he could contribute at the Major League level in the second half of 2013, so they put a flexible plan in place that allowed them to limit his innings whilst ensuring he would be available at the most crucial point of the season.

Whilst fans of the vanquished Dodgers and the Pirates will cast an envious eye at the Cardinals when they line up at Fenway Park, fans of the Washington Nationals will have every right to feel just as frustrated. I know this is flogging a dead horse, but the Cardinals’ sensible handling of Wacha’s innings limit and the subsequent success experienced by the player and team just adds to the bafflement at the way the Nationals made a complete horlicks of Stephen Strasburg’s innings limit in 2012 (and, just to add to the story, it was the Cardinals that knocked out the Nationals in the NLDS last season).

Like the Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox have also made plenty of good decisions this season too. Admittedly they came after the team made several poor decisions in the preceding year or so, not least hiring Bobby Valentine to be their manager; however the 2012 campaign is looking like a necessary lull after the Theo Epstein/Terry Francona era came to its natural conclusion. General Manager Ben Cherington got a stroke of luck last year with the Dodgers coming calling for several of their big contract players, but again you have to take full advantage of the opportunities that are presented.

Cherington did that by signing some experienced free agents, underwhelming moves for some onlookers at the time, and the team has gelled brilliantly under a new manager, ex-Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. Boston have produced some dramatic moments to make it to the World Series, such as an unlikely Grand Slam by Shane Victorino to win Game Six against the Tigers.

Are they a team of destiny or a team relying on their lottery numbers coming up again and again? Regardless of the debate on whether ‘clutch hitting’ is a repeatable skill, neither depiction would be accurate. The Red Sox have got quality players full of confidence and belief and that combination will always give you a chance for producing a memorable moment or two. Cherington can’t rely on David Ortiz being ‘clutch’ all the time, but he can – and has – put together a roster where there are a number of players with the potential to make a big play, thereby increasing the odds that one of them will come through.

Both the Cardinals and the Red Sox, and frankly every successful team, will have benefited from a bit of luck here and there this season, but the well-used saying ‘the harder I work, the luckier I get’ comes to mind.

In fact, perhaps in baseball that should be changed to ‘the smarter I work, the luckier I get’.

The Cardinals and Red Sox are two of the smarter organizations in MLB and their teams should produce a pulsating Fall Classic.