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St. Louis Cardinals' David Freese celebrated after hitting a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. | John G. Mabanglo/European Pressphoto Agency

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Slide Show. World Series Replay: Game 6  

ST. LOUIS – The two men, both in their 70’s, with decades in baseball and a fortune to their names, huddled together in the runway outside the home clubhouse at Busch Stadium early Friday morning. They could have been caffeinated Little Leaguers at a pizza parlor, celebrating the most thrilling game of their lives.    Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, was beaming. His sport had produced a sublime sixth game that will rank among the greatest in World Series history. Bill DeWitt, the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, was overjoyed that his team was still alive.

"I just told Bill, ‘I’m just stunned, I’m worn out,’" said Selig, after the Cardinals’ 10-9 victory over the Texas Rangers in 11 breathless innings. "Imagine if I had a rooting interest. But it was great for baseball, it really was. A great sixth game and now we come to a dramatic seventh game."

DeWitt said his wife, Kathy, embraced him three times in the late innings: when David Freese tied the game with a triple after the Cardinals were down to their last strike in the ninth; when Lance Berkman singled to tie the game in the 10th, again one strike from elimination; and, finally, in the 11th, when Freese homered to straightaway center off Mark Lowe to end it.

"I agree with the commissioner," DeWitt said. "He’s seen a lot of games; I’ve seen a lot of games in my lifetime. I’ve never seen a game like that. I told David Freese when he finally came off the field: ‘I’ve only got one word: that was awesome.’"
It was a game so monumental that even the players sensed history unfolding. During a late pitching change, the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton said he turned to a teammate and said, "This is a classic."

"We’re not all stressed out, as much as y’all think we are," Hamilton said. "We’d like to watch it later, too."
Hamilton managed to smile and laugh in the clubhouse, a healthy emotion considering how close the Rangers had come to glory. Protective plastic still covered the televisions and cabinets in the middle of the room, and rolled-up plastic sheets ringed the tops of the lockers. But there was no Champagne party.

Four Texas relievers had a hand in the loss – Neftali Feliz, who blew the save in the ninth; Darren Oliver, who gave up two singles in the 10th; Scott Feldman, who allowed Oliver’s runners to score; and Lowe, with one inning of work all month, who played Pat Darcy to Freese’s Carlton Fisk.

Feliz had been nearly flawless all month, converting all seven save chances with an earned run average of 0.87. With a 7-5 lead in the ninth, he allowed a double to Albert Pujols and a walk to Berkman, but froze Allen Craig on a backup slider for the second out.

With a 1-2 count on Freese, Feliz unleashed a 98 mile-an-hour fastball on the outside corner of the plate. Freese drove it to right field, where Nelson Cruz retreated. Manager Ron Washington told reporters later that Cruz froze on the ball, but Cruz said he saw it all the way, and that the ball simply took off on him.

If he could have done anything differently, Cruz said, he would have positioned himself closer to the wall when Freese came up.

"Yeah, probably go a few steps back, you know?" Cruz said. "That’s what I try to do in those situations. I just follow the signs they give me – go back, stay in front, whatever they tell me, I just go for that."

The ball sailed over Cruz’s head as he leaped, and Freese had a two-run, game-tying triple. After Yadier Molina flied out to end the inning, the Rangers’ best hope was to follow the blueprint of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992. That team blew a chance to win its first World Series with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning of Game 6 in Atlanta, but recovered to win in extra innings.

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