ST. LOUIS (AP) — A look at Game 3 of the World Series at Busch Stadium on Saturday night as the Boston Red Sox take on the St. Louis Cardinals:
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WILD ENDING: Cardinals win 5-4 on crazy play — obstruction at third base in the bottom of the ninth inning.
St. Louis takes 2-1 lead in best-of-seven Series. Game 4 is Sunday night at Busch Stadium.
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TIED AGAIN: Twists and turns, back and forth in this one.
The Red Sox came right back and scored twice in the eighth inning to tie it again, 4-all. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch for the sixth time this postseason. Both runners moved up on Dustin Pedroia's groundout, and David Ortiz was intentionally walked.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny went to hard-throwing closer Trevor Rosenthal with the bases loaded, hoping for a five-out save from a rookie who has looked almost untouchable this October. But the Red Sox pushed two runs across.
Daniel Nava drove in one with a short-hop grounder that was smothered by second baseman Kolten Wong, who had just entered on defense in a double-switch. Nice play by the rarely used rookie.
Wong went to second for the forceout, but Nava beat the relay and Ellsbury scored to make it 4-3. Xander Bogaerts tied it when he chopped a single up the middle.
Brandon Workman jammed Matt Holliday and retired the slugger on a routine fly with two on to end the bottom of the eighth. Still tied at 4, heading to the ninth.
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BACK ON TOP: Holliday's two-run double puts the Cardinals back on top in the seventh inning, 4-2.
Tough inning for Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow. Matt Carpenter reached safely when he checked his swing on an infield single to shortstop. Carlos Beltran was grazed on the elbow pad by a pitch — making no effort to get out of the way.
Beltran, in fact, almost appeared to stick his elbow out just a tiny bit to make sure the ball made contact.
Junichi Tazawa came on and Holliday pulled a grounder past new third baseman Will Middlebrooks. The ball kicked into the left-field corner and Holliday went all the way to third on the throw to the plate.
Tazawa then got a couple of strikeouts and prevented further damage.
It was Middlebrooks' first inning in the field. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and took over at third base in the bottom half.
That shifted Bogaerts to shortstop — and neither one was able to make the difficult defensive play Boston needed in that inning.
With four RBIs and three extra-base hits, Holliday is having a big Series so far.
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ALL TIED UP: Daniel Nava's run-scoring single on the first pitch from Cardinals reliever Seth Maness ties the score at 2 in the sixth inning.
Both starting pitchers take a no-decision. Joe Kelly issued a leadoff walk to Shane Victorino and was lifted after Dustin Pedroia lined out to third.
Lefty specialist Randy Choate tried to sneak a two-strike fastball by red-hot David Ortiz, but Big Papi sniffed it out and singled through the hole on the right side to send Victorino to third.
That brought on Maness, who gave up Nava's sharp single to left.
Maness then got rookie Xander Bogaerts to ground into an inning-ending double play.
That is Maness' specialty. He induced 16 double-play grounders during the season, the most among NL relievers.
Tied at 2 heading into the seventh. Rookie lefty Kevin Siegrist on for the Cardinals.
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ONE-RUN GAME: A leadoff triple by Bogaerts helps Boston trim the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth inning.
Right fielder Carlos Beltran, playing with those bruised ribs, couldn't cut off the ball in the gap. Beltran was unable to bend over enough to glove the ball — or perhaps he had an idea how much it would hurt and shied away.
Stephen Drew followed with a strikeout, but Bogaerts scored when pinch-hitter Mike Carp bounced a chopper to second base. St. Louis got the force at second, but Carp easily beat the relay to first as Bogaerts scored.
Joe Kelly struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the inning.
With all the talk about the Boston beards, nobody ever seems to mention Carp's bright red number. Yes, he's a bench player — but it's an epic effort.
Long, straight, stiff as a board. Definitely has an Amish look to it. Or maybe more Scandinavian. Tough to choose.
Carp batted for pitcher Jake Peavy, so left-hander Felix Doubront is on in the bottom of the fifth.
Doubront retires David Freese with two on to end the inning. Cardinals lead 2-1.
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ESCAPE: Peavy pitches out of major trouble in the fourth inning. Bases loaded, nobody out — Cardinals don't score.
Conservative move by third base coach Jose Oquendo to hold Yadier Molina at third on Jon Jay's single to center. Looked as though it would have been tough to throw out Molina at the plate. And with light-hitting Pete Kozma and pitcher Joe Kelly up next, probably a good time to take that chance.
Molina, however, wasn't running very well as he got to third, and Oquendo threw up a late stop sign.
Kozma was called out on strikes before Kelly and Matt Carpenter popped up.
Good move by Cardinals manager Mike Matheny to let Jay swing the bat instead of bunt with runners at first and second and none out. Again, with the bottom of the lineup to follow, good time to be aggressive.
Matheny certainly was. Oquendo was not.
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SETTLING IN: Peavy looked much sharper in the second and third than he did in the first inning. Maybe he's settling down a bit and finding his rhythm.
Peavy is a fiery guy on the mound, often yelling at himself in the middle of a game. Controlling his emotions can be an issue for him. Perhaps Peavy was a little over-amped in the first inning.
Cardinals still lead 2-0 after Joe Kelly strikes out Daniel Nava on a full-count pitch with two on to end the top of the fourth.
Jacoby Ellsbury's leadoff grounder in the fourth got past a diving Matt Carpenter at second base for Boston's first hit.
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SLOPPY PLAY: Ellsbury and the Red Sox catch a break on some bad baserunning by Matt Holliday in the third.
Playing deep against Holliday, Ellsbury ran in a long way on a popup to shallow center and appeared to have some trouble with the wind. Ellsbury dropped the ball for an error, but second baseman Dustin Pedroia alertly fired to first to throw out Holliday, who rounded the bag too far and was slow trying to get back.
Probably should have reached second safely if he had busted it out of the box the whole way.
These teams tied for the best regular-season record in the majors, but there certainly has been some sloppy play so far in this Series.
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EARLY LEAD: Run-scoring singles by Holliday and Yadier Molina give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
The Cardinals are 7-0 when scoring first this postseason. That flame-throwing young bullpen has a lot to do with that. You don't want to be behind in the late innings against this team.
Peavy, coming off a poor start in the ALCS against Detroit, doesn't appear to have many answers so far tonight, either. Several hard-hit line drives so far, though the Cardinals do not have an extra-base hit yet.
Interesting play by Carlos Beltran after Matt Carpenter's leadoff single. When the count went to 3-1 and Boston third baseman Xander Bogaerts shifted further off the line, Beltran tried to bunt for a base hit. He was thrown out by Peavy and credited with a sacrifice.
Beltran's bruised ribs might have had something to do with that decision. Fox sideline reporter Ken Rosenthal had just noted that Beltran took another pain-killing injection before the game but said he was feeling better.
Rosenthal, however, said Beltran told him he feels more comfortable swinging right-handed than left-handed since banging into the outfield wall in Game 1. Beltran feels as though his bat is dragging from the left side, Rosenthal said.
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HERE WE GO: Under way in Game 3 as the World Series shifts to Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Peavy was 0-1 with an 8.31 ERA in two playoff starts this month, though he did pitch well for 5 2-3 innings against Tampa Bay in the division series. This will be the first career World Series start for the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner.
Joe Kelly gets the ball for the Cardinals. He was 0-1 with a 4.41 ERA in three playoff starts.
Wearing those distinctive goggles, Kelly looks fired-up. Pumping in a heater at 98 mph in the first inning, he struck out Jacoby Ellsbury looking and then grabbed a comebacker barehanded.
Carpenter helped Kelly with a spectacular, diving play in the second to rob Daniel Nava of a hit. Nava getting his first World Series start in left field instead of Jonny Gomes.
Fox notes that 16 of the past 18 World Series that were tied 1-all were won by the team that took Game 3.
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UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY: With the move to the NL ballpark, there was no designated hitter allowed. Wanting to keep David Ortiz in the lineup after he homered in Games 1 and 2, Red Sox manager John Farrell put Big Papi at first base — where he played just 39 innings during the regular season.
Mike Napoli relegated to the bench for Boston, taking a big bat out of the lineup.
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HELP, PLEASE: In the first two games of the Series, Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia combined for seven hits in 13 at-bats. The rest of the Red Sox were 5 for 51 for an .098 batting average.
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EQUINE GUESTS: The Budweiser Clydesdales took a lap around the warning track before player introductions. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. owned the Cardinals from 1953-96.
There also was a pregame video tribute to Hall of Famer Stan Musial, the Cardinals great who died in January.
Willie McGee, the former St. Louis outfielder and 1985 NL MVP, threw out the first ball.
- Sports & Recreation
- Baseball
- Jacoby Ellsbury
- Boston Red Sox
- Dustin Pedroia
- Carlos Beltran
- Matt Holliday
- Matt Carpenter
- Daniel Nava
- Xander Bogaerts
- Shane Victorino
- David Ortiz
- Mike Matheny
- Jake Peavy
- Trevor Rosenthal
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