2011 World Series | St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers
It is amazing to think that on August 28, 2011 the St. Louis Cardinals were 11.5 games out of the Wild Card race. Thanks to an 18-8 September, the Cardinals overtook the Los Angeles Dodgers and entered the postseason as the Wild Card team. Little did they know that they would undergo a long and exciting postseason and come out as world champions.
The Cardinals began the playoffs in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies. Both teams equally exchanged the first four games to force a decisive fifth game. What ensued was a pitchers duel between Roy Halladay and the Cardinals’ ace, Chris Carpenter. The only run of the game was scored from an RBI double by Skip Schumaker in the top of the first. That was all Carpenter needed, who pitched a complete game shutout and sent the Cardinals to the World Series.
As the pressure rose in the Fall Classic, so did the competition. Although the Cardinals took Games 1 and 3, the Texas Rangers put themselves within one win of the championship with victories in Games 2, 4 and 5.
Game 6 came down to the wire and eventually gave the Cardinals the momentum to win the World Series. Down by two, David Freese faced a 1-2 count with two outs and two on in the ninth inning. One strike away from winning the World Series, Neftali Feliz gave up a two-run triple to send the game into extra innings.
The Rangers struck in the top of the tenth and the Cardinals answered with two runs in the bottom of the ninth. Once again, Freese came to the plate and delivered a walk-off homer to lead off the bottom of the eleventh.
After the roller coaster of Game 6, the Cardinals finished off the Rangers without going into extra innings. Freese continued his World Series MVP success by going 1-2 with two RBIs in Game 7. The Cardinals bested Texas 6-2 with another quality start from Carpenter.