The Cardinals had a chance to pull ahead of the Rangers in the bottom of the fifth, but Matt Holliday bounced into an inning-ending double play. Chris Carpenter worked through a scoreless top of the sixth, though, giving the Cardinals another opportunity, and this time they seized it.
World Series Game 1: Cardinals Score Go-Ahead Run In Sixth
After retiring Lance Berkman, C.J. Wilson made the mistake of throwing David Freese a pitch. David Freese hits all pitches, and he hit this one to the right-center gap for a double. He soon thereafter advanced to third when a ball got away from Mike Napoli.
Wilson struck out Yadier Molina to relieve some of the burden, and then he walked Nick Punto to bring up the pitcher's spot. Carpenter returned to the dugout, though, as Tony La Russa sent up Allen Craig to pinch-hit.
That brought Ron Washington out of the dugout to replace Wilson with Alexi Ogando. In other words, a walk of Nick Punto chased two starting pitchers from a game.
In came Ogando, and he overwhelmed Craig with a pair of fastballs. In a 1-2 count, though, Craig made contact and slashed a ball down the line in right, and...
That close. Nelson Cruz dove, but his dive was fruitless, and Craig had himself a run-scoring single to make it a 3-2 game. Had the ball gotten away from Cruz, it would’ve been 4-2 or 5-2, so the Rangers kind of got a break, but now they’re losing with three innings to go.
It's worth noting that, while Rafael Furcal flew out after Craig's single to end the inning, it looked like he hit a homer off the bat. He did not.
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