Cards get wires crossed

ST. LOUIS -- The day after the night before, the head-scratching and raised eyebrows over the St. Louis Cardinals' management of their Game 5 loss to the Texas Rangers resumed 1,100 kilometres to the north-east, the messy details no less strange or confusing.

If weather allows - and rain is in the forecast - the World Series can be won Wednesday night by a Rangers team eager to claim the first championship in the franchise's mostly unstoried 51-year history.

Yet the focus as the two teams returned to Busch Stadium for Game 6, and if necessary Game 7, was Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and the bizarre decision-making that helped push his team to the brink of elimination.

Just like the explanation following Monday's 4-2 Texas victory - secured on Mike Napoli's two-run double in the eighth inning off left-hander Marc Rzepczynski with hard-throwing righty Jason Motte nowhere to be found - the chain of events were no easier to follow Tuesday.

From troubled communications between dugout to bullpen to Albert Pujols being allowed to call the hit and run his own, something La Russa described as a mixup Monday, there was plenty to digest.

"Oh I think (the confusion) directly affected" the outcome, La Russa told a teeming interview room. "What I wanted to have happen wasn't happening, didn't happen. That's my fault. I don't need to dodge that, ever."

This is what seems to have gone down in regards to the bullpen.

As the Rangers were building their rally in the eighth against Octavio Dotel, La Russa called and asked for "Rzepczynski" and "Motte" to start warming. Bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist apparently only heard "Rzepczynski" and only he began to throw.

With runners on first and second and one out, La Russa brings in Rzepczynski to face lefty David Murphy who proceeds to hit a potential double-play grounder that glances off the reliever's glove to load the bases with Napoli coming.

At that point La Russa wants to bring in Motte to face Napoli, but realizes his closer isn't warming and he won't be able to stall long enough for him to get ready. He phones down and again asks for Motte, somehow Lilliquist hears "Lynn," as in Lance Lynn who is supposed to be unavailable, and the righty remains idle.

After Napoli doubles to put the Rangers up 4-2, Rzepczynski gets Mitch Moreland for the second out and La Russa heads out to the mound to bring in Motte, whom he presumes is warming up. He's not, Lynn comes in, La Russa is stunned, orders Lynn to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler while Motte warms, and then brings in Motte to face Elvis Andrus, whom he strikes out.

But by then, the damage has been done, and the Cardinals have handed control of the Fall Classic to the Rangers.

How can this happen?

Crowd noise in places with outfield bullpens can lead to miscommunication and one issue with the phone in the visitor's bullpen in Texas is that it's about 10 metres from the bullpen mounds, making hearing the phone ring alone, let alone comprehending what was said, difficult.

One big-league coach says typical practice under such circumstances is to sit one reliever near the phone to ensure someone hears it rings, and when instructions are relayed to repeat them back the dugout to ensure everyone is on the same page.

That's not how the Cardinals operate.

"We don't have a procedure in place where you say this and the guy says, 'Roger,'" explained La Russa. "If the guy can't hear, sometimes he says it, and I thought yesterday the first mention of Motte was probably after he had hung up. Maybe I didn't say it quickly enough. The second one, I said 'Motte,' he heard 'Lynn.' There's only one way to explain that. You can't hear clearly."

La Russa accepted full responsibility for the mix-up and said Lilliquist was not at fault.

Asked why Lilliquist, if aware that Lynn was only to be used in an emergency, would not doublecheck, La Russa replied: "I would be disappointed if Derek would have been saying, Tony, do you know what you're doing?"

"Emergency by definition doesn't mean it's not available - it's available in a situation," he continued. "You could reason that was going to be a one-out out, and if Motte was going to be the guy that was going to pitch (the ninth), well, (Lynn) gets that out and it's better for (Motte) to come out and pitch the next inning fresh.

"It comes down to who has the responsibility when there are those kinds of miscommunications, it's mine. There wasn't anything there that Derek did wrong at all, and I've assured him of that 10 times."

The same goes for Pujols and Allen Craig, who was twice caught stealing to snuff out rallies.

La Russa entered the interview and before the first question had been asked immediately entered into a lengthy sermon on why he grants Pujols the right to call the hit and run on his own, saying his slugger's knowledge of the game earned him that leeway.

"Whenever I've been a manager and a player has a real good feel and can handle the bat and he wanted to be able to put a play on," said La Russa, "he's been given that right."

That right led to a botched attempt in the seventh during which Pujols didn't swing and Craig was thrown out easily at second - the play La Russa called a mixup Monday. He and Craig had a lengthy conversation when the latter returned to the dugout because La Russa wanted to be sure he didn't put the play on himself.

"I thought, 'Crap, did I put it on? Is that the normal hit-and-run? What was that?' And he told me. So then I said, OK, I was just glad I didn't put it on."

As for why Pujols didn't swing, La Russa explained: "They teach you to swing if you can get - and he can reach a lot of pitches, but that one was just wasted a strike. There's no way he could have reached it, although you try to protect the runner the best you can."

As for the ninth, when Pujols struck out on a 3-2 pitch and Craig was gunned down at second for the second out, that was a run and hit with La Russa hoping to keep the Cardinals out of a double play.

That backfired, too, as did four-hole hitter Matt Holliday, who was unable to make the Rangers pay for intentionally walking Pujols three times. Lance Berkman will bat fourth in his place Wednesday when the Cardinals will try to improve on the 1-for-12 they went with runners in scoring position Monday.

One or two more hits on that front, and the discussion would have been a vastly different one.

"If you get an early lead and you don't add on, it comes back to haunt you almost all the time, especially against a good club," La Russa said. "So we kept pushing and pushing for the run. So to this moment, the thing that is bothering our club is how do we not produce for runs from those situations, and that's what we're going to try to do better.

"Long story short, once the thing started, you go and make a pitching change, you've got the wrong guy coming out there, that's not fun. Geez, that was embarrassing. But it wasn't the thing that I thought about and we thought about the most. It's only getting two runs was probably the biggest thing."

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