World Series Game 5

The Cardinals offense is nothing but Albert Pujols, and the Rangers offense is nothing but Mike Napoli. These two players need to be MVP, depending on which team wins the series. Napoli almost had another home run last night in the 6th inning that would have put his team ahead. Then he came up again in the 8th inning, and that's where the drama began.

Tony LaRussa called the bullpen to tell them that he wanted Jason Motte and Marc Rzepczynski to begin throwing to get loose. Normally this is a very easy thing to take care of and almost never happens during the regular season and rightfully should be. Cardinals bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist heard Rzepczynski, but did not heard Motte. He somehow heard the name Lance Lynn instead of Motte. LaRussa said after the game that Lance Lynn was unavailable before the game even started, and that's why Lynn just threw four straight intentional balls. Rzepcynski, a left hander, had to then face the right-handed hitter Napoli.

That was not the situation that the Cardinals organization wanted at all, and Napoli made them pay with a long double through the right-center field gap. That was all that the Rangers needed to win Game 5 of the World Series.

I'm not too sure how that happens. This isn't LaRussa's first game as a manager; it's actually the complete opposite-- he's been around forever. The bullpen coach needs to know that Lance Lynn was not available and needs to know that he may have misheard LaRussa and asked him if that's what he actually meant.

Some people might say that it was the crowd or that the phone wasn't working properly, but I don't buy that at all. In response to the crowd: Yes, they were loud. Yes, it might have been harder to hear than normal. The bullpen needs to know what is going on in that situation. They are not all rookies out there. In response to the phone not working: It has worked all year long, and nobody has ever complained about it not working. So I would find it hard to believe that it would stop working in Game 5.

The Texas Rangers hold a 3 - 2 lead in the World Series. Game 6 will take place at 8:05 P.M., October 26, 2011 on Fox. Jaime Garcia (0 - 0) will face Colby Lewis (0 - 0) in Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri.