page_title: 2011 St. Louis Cardinals season
section_title: World Series
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 St. Louis Cardinals season / Postseason / World Series
caption_attribution_description: English: Cardinals players celebrate after the last out of the 2011 World Series.
context_page_description: The St. Louis Cardinals' 2011 season was the team's 130th season in St. Louis, Missouri, its 120th season in the National League, and its sixth season at Busch Stadium III. The Cardinals began their season at home against the San Diego Padres on March 31, following an 86–76 record and second-place finish in the NL Central in 2010. The team returned to postseason play in 2011 as the Wild Card team, after finishing second in the NL Central to the Milwaukee Brewers by six games. The Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies in five games in the Division Series and the Milwaukee Brewers in six games in the National League Championship Series. They defeated the Texas Rangers in the 2011 World Series in seven games.
context_section_description: Allen Craig was the hero in Game 1 of the World Series, singling off Alexi Ogando to break a 2–2 tie. The Cards managed to win. The next day, Craig was almost the hero again when he singled off Ogando for the second straight night. The Rangers came back to win, 2–1, though, for Jason Motte's only blown save of the postseason. The next game, Albert Pujols went 5-for-6 with three home runs to put him in company with Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to hit three homers in a World Series game. Pujols also set a record with 14 total bases, hits in four consecutive innings, and tied a Series record with five hits, total bases, RBIs, and runs scored in one game.
  But after the Rangers won the next two games, the Cardinals fell behind in the Series 3–2.  The Cardinals, facing the Texas Rangers in the World Series, pulled-off one of the greatest comeback game wins in World Series history, with an amazing Game 6, winning 10–9 in 11 innings after twice being one strike away from elimination. David Freese hit a two-out, two-strike, ninth-inning triple, to tie the game after trailing 7–5 in the ninth inning.  Berkman followed with an RBI single in the 10th to tie the game again.  Later, with the score tied 9–9, Freese hit a lead-off walk-off home run to dead centerfield in the 11th, off Mark Lowe at 11:39 pm CDT. Lance Berkman had previously tied the game in the 10th with a single with 2 outs and 2 strikes, scoring Jon Jay. The win meant that the World Series would go to a seventh game for the first time since 2002.  Of the last 13 Major League teams that won Game 6 at home to force a Game 7 in the postseason, 12 went on to win Game 7.  The Rangers led 4 different times in the game, including with two outs and two strikes in both the ninth and the 10th, but the Cardinals refused to die.
  Freese's game-winning home run was only the fifth in World Series Game 6 history (1960-Pit., 1975-Bos., 1991-Min., 1993-Tor).
  The Cardinals set two records in their Game 6 win: the first team to come back twice from deficits in both the 9th and 10th innings, and the first team to score in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th innings.
  On October 28, the Cardinals finished off their amazing, end-of-season run,  starting after the Aug 24 game when they were 10​¹⁄₂ games behind for the NL Central Division lead.  They defeated the Texas Rangers 4 games to 3, with a 6–2 win in Game 7 of the World Series at their Busch Stadium home in front of 47,399 fans.  It was the 36th time a team won the World Series in a Game 7 (or Game 8).  The final out was made when David Murphy flew out to left field to give the Cardinals their eleventh world championship. David Freese, a graduate of Lafayette High School in St. Louis, won the MVP award for both the NLCS, and then for the World Series, as well as the Babe Ruth Award.  He knocked in a record 21 RBIs in his post-season.  Chris Carpenter set a franchise record for most wins (four) in a single postseason.  Carpenter, 9–2 overall in his Cardinals postseason career, ran his home postseason mark to 7–0 with a 2.15 ERA.  Tony La Russa became only the ninth manager in major-league history to win at least three World Series.
caption: The Cardinals celebrate the 11th World Series Championship in club history, the most of any National League team.
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