Cutting the Cards

ARLINGTON, Texas - There is a resolve needed to compete on the grandest stages of competitive sports, an ability to push aside adversity and respond to challenges, to recognize moments of magnitude but not be consumed by them.

Both the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals have demonstrated that ability through the first four games of the World Series, each a wildly entertaining affair demanding a strong inner fortitude to succeed.

Into the breach stepped 25-year-old Derek Holland on Sunday night, charged with switching the channel on the Albert Pujols Air Show and keeping his Rangers from being pushed to the brink of defeat in the Fall Classic for a second straight year.

Buoyed by an animated pep talk from manager Ron Washington on the dugout steps before first taking the mound, the 6-2 lefty with the nasty heat and dodgy attempt at a moustache did exactly that in a 4-0 victory, shutting down Pujols in three at-bats after a historic three-homer Game 3 performance, and stuffing an offence that scored 16 times a night earlier.

"I wanted to show that I belong here, that was the main thing," Holland said afterwards. "I wanted to make a name out of myself and at the same time, I wanted to get momentum back on our side. I knew it was a big game so I knew I had to step up, so I made sure I could do everything to do that."

A pitcher of extremes - 12 times this season he's allowed two runs or fewer in an outing, while 10 times he's surrendered five or more - Holland allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out seven in 8.1 innings of dominance.

Described by second baseman Ian Kinsler as a little "goofy," Holland typically is a bundle of energy when he starts, racing inside on the mound, pacing in the dugout when he's not. On this night there was a calmness to him, a focus that brought out his good side, not his bad side.

"Emotions, just controlling his emotions," Washington said of the difference in his pitcher's polar ends. "He's a fighter, he's a battler, he goes out there and he gives you everything he has. Sometimes, his emotions overtake everything. Tonight, he never got out of control."

He wasn't the only one leading the charge as the Rangers knotted the World Series 2-2, turning the championship into a best-of-three before a joyous crowd of 51,539 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Like Pujols did a night earlier for his team only with far less thunder, hobbled superstar Josh Hamilton delivered a key blow for the Rangers, an RBI double that opened the scoring in the first off Edwin Jackson.

Holland proceeded to cut through the Cards, while Jackson struggled through each of his 5.1 innings, walking an astonishing seven batters. The final two came in the sixth and set the stage for Mike Napoli to drop the hammer, a three-run rocket to left field on the first pitch reliever Mitchell Boggs offered up to open things up.

Staked to a 4-0 lead, Holland came out for the seventh and delivered an emphatic shut-down inning against the heart of the Cardinals lineup, getting Pujols and Matt Holliday on comebackers to the mound and Lance Berkman looking at strike three.

Following a lengthy conversation on the mound, Washington pulled him after a one-out walk to Rafael Furcal in the ninth, and Neftali Feliz closed things out by getting Pujols and Holliday after a walk to Allen Craig to cap an effort that underlined why the Rangers haven't lost consecutive games since Aug. 23-25.

"He was begging," Washington said of his conversation with Holland in the ninth. "I told him if you want to stay out here, get on your knees. He walked off the field."

Countered Holland: "He was like, 'No you ain't going in there son.' I was like, 'OK.' And then he gave that nice little 'hahaha' laugh he always does. I was trying everything I could to stay out there, but unfortunately I couldn't."

Game 5 is Monday night and is a rematch of the riveting 3-2 duel Chris Carpenter won over C.J. Wilson, the winner getting a shot at the title in Game 6 on Wednesday when play returns to St. Louis.

The Cardinals, having once again allowed a lead in the series slip away, can still put themselves in the driver's seat heading home.

"If you want to choose somebody from the St. Louis Cardinals to pitch that game, it's Chris," said manager Tony La Russa. "Pitching on the road in a hostile environment, I think he actually likes it, pitches better."

Though his post-season wasn't much to speak of prior to Sunday - 1-0 with a 5.27 ERA in three games, two of them starts - Holland has moved past his miserable World Series performance last year, when he was the second pitcher into the eighth inning of a 2-0 affair in Game 2 and threw 13 pitches, only one of them a strike, before he was mercifully yanked from what ended as a 9-0 loss.

Sure, he threw a scoreless frame in Game 4 against the San Francisco Giants, but Sunday's brilliance against the Cardinals will move him past that debacle for good.

"I saw how everything went last year," said Holland, "so I made sure I'm not going to let this slip away from me."

There were lessons to be learned. Clearly, he knows how to apply them.

"I made sure I could control not only my emotions, but the adrenaline, too," he said. "I wasn't so antsy and everything, and I thought leading up to everything, I felt like I did a good job preparing myself."

No doubt. Now, once again, the World Series is up for grabs, and it's a sprint to the finish.

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.