{"id":12240,"date":"2011-10-23T14:48:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T13:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12240"},"modified":"2011-10-24T16:33:59","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T15:33:59","slug":"world-series-2011-game-three-pujols-pummels-the-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12240","title":{"rendered":"World Series 2011 Game Three: Pujols Pummels the Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The 2011 World Series moved to a new location for Game Three and it offered up a completely different contest.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In some respects it was to be expected.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are two teams with very good offences and Rangers Ballpark has a well-deserved reputation as being hitter-friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 These potent bats were unlikely to be silenced for much longer.<\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 The other two are Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson: two great names from baseball history.\u00c2\u00a0 You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the type of thing Albert does.<\/p>\n

The three homers were awe-inspiring, bashing the Rangers and their fans into submission.\u00c2\u00a0 The ever-quotable Ron Washington put it best<\/a> when he said after the game: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153between him and [the Tigers’ Miguel] Cabrera, you need to outlaw them … they’re just that good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

One of the sub-plots to the Cardinals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 postseason run is Pujols\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 impending free agency.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been overly convinced that his performance in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s postseason would greatly affect the length and value of his new contract.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s established himself as one of the greatest players in recent memory, so it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be hard for his agent to dismiss a handful of hit-less games in October in any negotiations.\u00c2\u00a0 A standout performance or two might add a few dollars on to the overall value, but everyone knows what sort of player Pujols is and everyone knows that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll become one of the highest players in the game and receive one of the largest contracts in the sport\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history.<\/p>\n

The question is whether the Cardinals will be the team to give him that contract.\u00c2\u00a0 Would winning a World Series have any bearing on the decision and if so would it make it more or less likely that Pujols will continue to wear Cardinal red for the rest of his career?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to wait and see, in the first instance whether the Cardinals do in fact have another World Series triumph to celebrate.\u00c2\u00a0 Their 2-1 series lead, and the manner of their Game Three victory, gives them a great chance to tick that first achievement off their list.<\/p>\n

A few mistakes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The comprehensive nature of the final scoreline has relegated first base umpire Ron Kulpa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incorrect call in the fourth inning to a footnote, much to his relief I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure.\u00c2\u00a0 Rangers fans will note that the call, wrongly ruling that Mike Napoli missed a tag on Matt Holliday in what should have been a double-play, started off a four-run inning for the Cardinals.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twitter was immediately alive with calls for the use of Instant Replay to be expanded.\u00c2\u00a0 Gary Thorn and Rick Sutcliffe noted on the MLB International broadcast that it took them less time to determine that the ruling was wrong than it did for the umpires to deal with Washington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s understandable complaint.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is difficult to argue against that point and had the decision been more prominent in the final result then much more would be made of it.\u00c2\u00a0 However, it was interesting to note that Napoli voiced his opposition after the game to expanding the use of Instant Replay.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 point of view, they will also look at their own part in the decision and its repercussions.<\/p>\n

It would have been avoided had Ian Kinsler not made such a poor throw in the first place and might not have been costly had Mike Napoli not then allowed two runs to score with his own off-line throw to the plate.\u00c2\u00a0 There was also plenty of time left in the game for Texas to recover from the incorrect decision.<\/p>\n

None of this makes Kulpa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call less of an error, but we always tend to overemphasise the impact of one call from an umpire when it should be seen in the context of the whole game.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Game Four<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game Three lasted over four hours, coming to an end at 5.10 a.m. UK time. Thankfully we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had Sunday morning to catch up on some sleep after that.\u00c2\u00a0 What will hopefully be an exciting, but slightly shorter, Game Four begins at 01.05 a.m. on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2011 World Series moved to a new location for Game Three and it offered up a completely different contest to the first two games. The Cardinals took a 2-1 series lead with a 16-7 victory with Albert Pujols launching three home runs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553,119,126,65],"class_list":["post-12240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-texas-rangers","tag-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12251,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions\/12251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}