Game 6 broke Texas Rangers fans’ hearts. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t an all-time classic.
The final Thursday of October in 2011 was a pleasant one in St. Louis, and the World Series would resume with Game 6 the day after it was postponed for a rain storm that never came.
The Texas Rangers were a victory away from the first world title in franchise history. The delay caused a slight loss in momentum following victories in Games 4 and 5 at Globe Life Park, but they had Colby Lewis, their best postseason pitcher, on the mound ready to eliminate the St. Louis Cardinals.
Rangers fans still wear the scars of what happened over 4 hours, 33 minutes and 10 1/2 innings of October baseball. The most bitter fans still pin blame on Nelson Cruz, Neftali Feliz, Darren Oliver, Scott Feldman and Ron Washington, or some combination of them.
Though the outcome will never stop haunting this generation of Rangers fans, even if the team wins the next five World Series, this remains indisputable:
Game 6 of the 2011 World Series remains the best game I have ever covered.
That isn’t just the sentiment now. It was almost an immediate understanding, once the dust had settled and the stories had been rewritten.
Tipping cold ones with writers afterward in the hotel lobby bar, the general consensus was that the game was an all-time classic.
The Rangers scored one in the first, only to see the Cardinals counter with two in the bottom half. The game was tied 4-4 after six when Cruz and Adrian Beltre launched back-to-back homers off Cardinals rookie Lance Lynn to start the seventh.
They scored once more when Ian Kinsler delivered a two-out single that scored pitcher Derek Holland, who in Game 4 delivered a brilliant outing to knot the series at two games each.
Up 7-4, Holland allowed a solo homer in the eighth to Allen Craig, but the Rangers went to the bottom of the ninth up 7-5 with their closer, Feliz, three outs away from baseball’s ultimate prize.
In the press box, stories crowning the Rangers as champions had already been written. Ponchos and other waterproof gear was being donned for the champagne celebration that seemed incredibly probable.
Quickly, the Rangers were two outs away after Feliz struck out Ryan Theriot to start the inning. Albert Pujols doubled and Lance Berkman walked, but Craig struck out.
The Rangers were an out away. Three pitches later they were a strike away.
David Freese, though, sent a hard liner to right field, and Cruz couldn’t make the play as the ball slapped off the wall. Both runners scored, Freese had a triple, and Feliz had to get Yadier Molina to get the Rangers to extra innings.
He did, and the Rangers again were put in a position to capture the flag.
Josh Hamilton launched a two-run homer in the 10th — he would later say God told him it would happen — and the Rangers led 9-7. (By the way, Hamilton’s four-homer game the next season at Baltimore is the greatest individual performance I’ve witnessed.)
The Cardinals were in trouble. Their bench had been used up. There was no chance to create a more favorable matchup, and their pitcher was going to have to it.
Oliver, a left-hander, simply needed retire No. 8 and No. 9 hitters Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay, both lefty-hitters, and a pitcher.
But two soft singles and a sacrifice gave St. Louis runners at second and third with one out. Scott Feldman entered to retire Theriot on a grounder, but a run scored.
Two outs, though. Again.
With first base open, the Rangers walked Pujols to face Berkman. The count reached 2-2, again leaving the Rangers a strike away, but Berkman floated a broken-bat single to center and Jay walked home with the tying run.
The Rangers went quietly in the 11th. Mark Lowe, the UT Arlington product, entered.
Freese ended the game six pitches later with a walk-off homer to center field.
Cardinals 10, Rangers 9. The series was tied 3-3. The Cardinals were able to pitch ace Chris Carpenter in Game 7, and they hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy the next night after a 6-2 victory.
Game 7 wasn’t particularly good, especially the part when C.J. Wilson pitched.
Game 6, though, was as good as it gets in terms of drama and individual feats on the game’s biggest stage.
At least it is for me.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
