Texas moved to the brink of their first World Series title, with a late rally to beat St. Louis 4-2 behind a clutch double from Mike Napoli and solo homers by Adrian Beltre and Mitch Moreland.
Rangers catcher Napoli drove a two-run double to deep right field in the eighth for the Rangers’ first lead of the night as Texas battled back from a two-run deficit to take a three games to two lead in the best-of-seven series on Monday.
Napoli, who came to Texas from Toronto in a trade in January, was dominant on defence as well, gunning down the Cardinals’ Allen Craig twice trying to steal second base.
“He certainly knows how to play baseball and he was taught well,” said Rangers manager Ron Washington. “He came in as advertised as far as power, on-base percentage.”
Texas can capture their first World Series title in their 51-year history when the series switches back to St. Louis for game six on Wednesday.
Washington said he does not want to get too far ahead of himself so he is planning on the series going seven games.
“We want to stay in the moment. Our attitude is when we get on the field again on Wednesday, we are just going to go out there and try to play the best game we can,” Washington said.
The team that wins game five in a World Series tied at two games apiece has gone on to win the title 66 percent of the time.
St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter kept the Cardinals in the contest with seven solid innings but he did not get much help from the St. Louis offence in front of a crowd of 51,459 at Rangers Ballpark.
The Cardinals left 12 base runners stranded Monday and went one-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
“It is a very disappointing, frustrating loss. We did have nine or 10 times to add a run,” said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.
The Cardinals scored two runs in the second inning but came up empty the rest of the game, including in the fifth and seventh innings when they failed to score after loading the bases.
Beltre dropped to one knee to lift his home run blast off Carpenter into the left field bleachers in the sixth inning and Moreland bombed one into the upper deck in right field in the third as Texas chipped away at the Cardinals’ lead.
Texas pitcher C.J. Wilson kept the Cardinals mighty offence at bay for the majority of his 5 1/3 innings but he looked shaky at times and did not get the win as he gave up two runs on four hits and walked five batters.
“He kept us in the game,” Washington said. “He is a battler and a fighter but that is what my team is. We fight, we battle and we go to war.”
Closing pitcher Neftali Feliz worked the ninth, striking out two of the final three St. Louis batters. Napoli got the other out in the top of the ninth by catching Craig stealing for the second time in the contest.
He also threw Craig out with a missile to second in the seventh.
The Cardinals capitalized on some suspect Texas defence to score two runs in the second.
Yadier Molina got the scoring started with a single to left field that scored Matt Holliday.
The Cards jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Skip Schumaker hit a ground ball to first base that Moreland bobbled, allowing Lance Berkman to score from third.
Realizing he had no chance to get Berkman out at home, Moreland turned and stepped on the first base bag to force out Schumaker.
St. Louis looked poised to tack on more runs, but Rangers outfielder David Murphy made up for an earlier error by ending the second inning with a diving catch in left field.
