After suffering a bullpen phone malfunction in Game Five, the St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Texas Rangers 4-2. If you haven’t been on another planet then you know the Rangers are ahead in the World Series 3-2. More than a lot must go right in order for the Cardinals to come back and tie/win the World Series.
The Red Birds will be throwing Jaime Garcia who is 0-2 in the 2011 post season with a 3.97 ERA. Clearly Garcia will need to step up his game, he NEEDS a “Robert Horry Mindset” going into game Six. The Rangers have Colby Lewis starting on the bump who is 1-1 and has a 2.97 ERA with a deep bullpen behind him. Another key factor in this crucial Game Six is the consistency of St. Louis’s offense. Albert Pujols set a MLB record by slugging three home runs in Game Four, but besides that he hasn’t produced much run support . Pujols is only hitting .278 in the series. What’s not helping Pujols’s case, is Matt Holliday’s struggles at the dish. With the Rangers game plan being putting Pujols on base whenever the opportunity is right, Holliday becomes the main target. He is only hitting .167 with one extra base hit and zero RBI’s, leading to the Ranger’s manager Ron Washington to choose to not pitch to Albert “The Machine” Pujols.
If the Cardinals play stronger defense, are less streaky at the plate, and hope that they get a solid start from Jaime Garcia then they can win. On the up side the rest of the World Series will be played in St. Louis, allowing the Cardinals to feed off of their fans and get some momentum. Every non-biased fan wants this to go into 7, so let’s hope the Cardinals execute.
-Pollack
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