ARLINGTON, TEXAS • When this weird, inexplicable baseball hallucination/meltdown finally came to an end, there was no more fitting sight than this:
Tony La Russa sitting inside Rangers Ballpark simply shrugging his shoulders.
The Cardinals manager tried to explain what we'd all just witnessed in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series, and he would have been better off trying to explain how pigs fly, cats bark or why rally squirrels charge home plate.
A World Series that started out with three fabulous nights of baseball brilliance descended into a weird, frustrating, exasperating evening Monday night with La Russa's Cardinals explaining away the confusion of so many lost offensive opportunities, the bizarre mysteries of a botched hit-and-run and the fractured misadventure of a goofed-up phone call to the bullpen.
This was anything but a Fall Classic. This self-destructive 4-2 loss by the Cardinals to the American League champion Texas Rangers will be remembered for all the wrong reasons to Cardinals loyalists and marked down in baseball's annals as one of the most twisted tales the World Series has ever seen.
By the end of the evening, this big ballpark was bouncing with the sound of loud country music, crackling Ranger bats and the grinding of so many overheated baseball minds trying to comprehend the confusing explanations for the Cardinals' breakdowns.
The Redbirds blew just about every chance they could to win this pivotal Series contest, and now for the first time in more than 50 days, it's reasonable to wonder if this was the night when they may have lost the remarkable mojo that fueled their improbable joyride from the brink of playoff elimination way back on Labor Day weekend to their 18th trip to the World Series.
The Series is returning to St. Louis with the Cardinals trailing in this best-of-seven series three games to two, and it was not a pretty sight. Their margin for error has been sliced down to the width of a willow branch, and they have to know it.
Inside that visitors' clubhouse, all the Cardinals players were all trying to remind anyone who would listen (and maybe trying to convince themselves, too) that the next few days in St. Louis will play out exactly the way the last 50 days have: with their backs firmly planted against a wall, constantly finding unique ways to fight their way out of every bad, do-or-die situation.
"We've been doing this for the last month," said outfielder Matt Holliday. "All pretty much do or die. So we're used to it."
They have shown us so many times that they know how to survive and thrive while flirting with life on the brink of elimination. Do-or-die situations gave them so much comfort as they kept finding ways to reach October. Then they spent the past 25 days in the role of the underdogs, going to Philadelphia and beating the best team in baseball, then taking care of the NL Central champion Brewers, too.
So what makes this tight squeeze any different from the rest?
"We just have to go home for Game 6 and get ready," said Albert Pujols.
The Cardinals have potentially two games remaining in Busch Stadium, with all the comforts of home. And by "comforts" I mean the same sort of miserable, drizzling, 40-degree conditions that they slogged through to beat the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series at Busch.
Are there any more miracles in their bag of tricks? Are there any more quirky rally squirrels who will scoot across home plate Wednesday night? Is there some faint residue of good karma floating in the air that can snap them out of the mess that they created during this Lost Texas Weekend?
The Cardinals flat out blew it down here, and there's no other way to put it.
They took a 2-1 Series edge Saturday night with the most dramatic offensive show of force we've ever seen in a World Series, then let all that momentum dissipate over the past two nights.
I'm going to do what the Cardinals have to do if they want to come home and win this Series. I'm going to spend less time dwelling on the failures that wrecked them Sunday and Monday night and instead advance the story to Wednesday night.
I'm going to wonder if the manager can steady this rocking ship. I'm going to wonder if the manager everyone spent praising for his calm and relaxed manner over the past 50 days can find a way to resist the urge to over-think things like he did in Game 5 and make Game 6 flow with a little more sanity. I'm going to wonder if Holliday can muster up all the strongest competitive instincts in his gut, find a way to relax at the plate and lash out at the Rangers for their repeated insults by walking Pujols to get to Holliday.
I'm going to wonder if Jaime Garcia can conjure up another marvelous pitching performance like we saw in Game 2, and if this time his bullpen preserves his strong showing. I'm going to wonder if these same Cardinals who gutted it out and pulled off the most remarkable, improbable and historic comeback in franchise history can do something to give more spark to that flickering flame.
The NL champion Cardinals did their level best to let the Series slip out of their hands down here in Texas. On Monday night, it looked like the Cardinals were falling apart. Too many strange things were going bump in the night.
But we've seen that act before, haven't we? How long ago was it when we thought their season was on the brink?
How long ago was it when the unsteady stumbles of a team on the verge of collapse were merely part of an unforeseen balancing act by a resilient team trying to regain its footing?
Is this what we're seeing now?
By now if you haven't heard, this is the new Cardinal Way:
Baseball ain't easy.
